Methods for super-resolution ultrasound imaging of microvessels
AssigneeMayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
InventorsPengfei Song, Joshua D. Trzasko, Armando Manduca, Shigao Chen
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Abstract
Systems and methods for super-resolution ultrasound imaging of microvessels in a subject are described. Ultrasound data are acquired from a region-of-interest in a subject who has been administered a microbubble contrast agent. The ultrasound data are acquired while the microbubbles are moving through, or otherwise present in, the region-of-interest. The region-of-interest may include, for instance, microvessels or other microvascuiature in the subject. By isolating, localizing, tracking, and accumulating the microbubbles in the ultrasound data, super-resolution images of the microvessels can be generated.
Claims59
A method for super-resolution imaging of microvessels using an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising:
- (a) providing ultrasound data to a computer system, the ultrasound data having been acquired with an ultrasound system from a region-of-interest in a subject in which a microbubble contrast agent was present when the ultrasound data were acquired;
- (b) generating microbubble signal data with the computer system by processing the ultrasound data to isolate microbubble signals in the ultrasound data from other signals in the ultrasound data, the microbubble signal data comprising time frames of microbubble signal data;
- (c) localizing microbubbles in the microbubble signal data by processing the microbubble signal data with the computer system to determine spatial locations associated with microbubbles in the microbubble signal data in each time frame;
- (d) tracking the localized microbubbles in the microbubble signal data across time frames by minimizing a distance between microbubbles localized in consecutive time frames in order to track individual microbubbles;
- and
- (e) producing a super-resolution microvessel image based at least in part on the localized and tracked microbubble signals;
- and
- wherein producing the super-resolution microvessel image comprises:
- globally tracking the microbubbles as a function of time using a partial assignment in which localized microbubbles are paired one-to-one in consecutive time frames based on minimizing the distance between the microbubbles localized in consecutive time frames and unpaired microbubbles in each time frame are removed from consideration when producing the super-resolution microvessel image, and
- producing the super-resolution microvessel image based on the tracking of the microbubbles, wherein unpaired microbubbles in each time frame are not used when producing the super-resolution microvessel image.
A method for super-resolution imaging of microvessels using an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising:
- (a) providing ultrasound data to a computer system, the ultrasound data having been acquired with an ultrasound system from a region-of-interest in a subject in which a microbubble contrast agent was present when the ultrasound data were acquired;
- (b) generating microbubble signal data with the computer system by processing the ultrasound data to isolate microbubble signals in the ultrasound data from other signals in the ultrasound data, the microbubble signal data comprising time frames of microbubble signal data;
- (c) localizing microbubbles in the microbubble signal data by processing the microbubble signal data with the computer system to determine spatial locations associated with microbubbles in the microbubble signal data in each time frame;
- (d) tracking the localized microbubbles in the microbubble signal data across time frames by minimizing a distance between microbubbles localized in consecutive time frames in order to track individual microbubbles;
- and
- (e) producing a super-resolution microvessel image based at least in part on the localized and tracked microbubble signals;
- wherein producing the microvessel image comprises globally tracking the microbubbles as a function of time and producing the microvessel image based on that tracking of the microbubbles;
- wherein globally tracking the microbubbles comprises performing a bipartite graph minimal distance pairing that pairs microbubbles between temporally consecutive image frames in the microbubble signal data;
- and
- wherein performing the bipartite graph minimal distance pairing comprises:
- producing a distance map by calculating a distance between the spatial locations of each microbubble in a first image frame with the spatial locations of each microbubble in a second image frame;
- thresholding the distance map based on a physiological limit of blood flow speed;
- and
- minimizing a total distance of paired microbubbles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.