Methods for Extracting and Quantifying Diagnostic Biomarkers From Ultrasound Microvessel Images

A method for generating quantitative vessel feature data from non-contrast ultrasound data, the steps of the method comprising:

• (a) providing a microvessel image to a computer system, the microvessel image having been acquired with an ultrasound system from a subject without a contrast agent;
• (b) converting the microvessel image to a binary image using the computer system, wherein the binary image contains pixels with first binary values and pixels with second binary values, wherein pixels with the first binary value correspond to segmented vessels;
• (c) generating vessel segment data from the binary image by morphologically filtering the binary image using the computer system, wherein the vessel segment data represent segmented vessels depicted in the microvessel image;
• (d) generating quantitative vessel feature data based on at least one of the binary image and the vessel segment data, the quantitative vessel feature data comprising at least one of quantitative vessel structure data, quantitative vessel Murray's deviation data, quantitative bifurcation angle data, quantitative closest vessel distance data, quantitative fractal dimension data, and quantitative spatial vascularity pattern data;
• and
• (e) displaying the quantitative vessel feature data to a user.