Systems and Methods for Microvessel Ultrasound Imaging
AssigneeMayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
InventorsAzra Alizad, Mostafa Fatemi, Rohit Nayak
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Abstract
Described here are systems and methods for generating microvessel images from image data acquired with an ultrasound system while analyzing the image data in realtime, or retrospectively, to generate a performance descriptor that can be used to assess data quality and/or motion correction quality; to adaptively suppress noise in the data; or both.
Claims66
A method for generating an image that depicts microvessels in a subject using an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising:
- (a) providing to a computer system, image data acquired from a subject with an ultrasound system, wherein the image data comprise image frames obtained at a plurality of different time points;
- (b) generating reformatted data with the computer system by reformatting the image data as a Casorati matrix;
- (c) generating motion matrix data with the computer system by computing a similarity metric of each column of the reformatted data with every other column of the reformatted data;
- (d) analyzing the motion matrix data with the computer system and based on this analysis generating updated image data by:
- (i) directing the ultrasound system to reject image data when analysis of the motion matrix data indicates translation motion occurred when the image data were acquired;
- (ii) directing the computer system to process the image data to reduce motion corruption when analysis of the motion matrix data indicates periodic motion occurred when the image data were acquired;
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- (e) generating an image that depicts microvessels in the subject by reconstructing the image from the updated image data using the computer system.
A method for generating an image that indicates a reliability of local spatial regions of image data acquired using an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising:
- (a) providing to a computer system, image data acquired from a subject with an ultrasound system;
- (b) generating reformatted data with the computer system by reformatting the image data as a Casorati matrix;
- (c) generating motion matrix data with the computer system by computing a similarity metric of each column of the reformatted data with every other column of the reformatted data;
- (d) generating from the motion matrix, a spatiotemporal map whose pixel values indicate a reliability of local spatial regions in the image data.
A method for generating an image that depicts microvessels in a subject using an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising:
- (a) accessing with a computer system, ultrasound data acquired from a subject with an ultrasound system, wherein the ultrasound data comprise image frames obtained at a plurality of different time points;
- (b) generating spatiotemporal matrix data with the computer system by reformatting the ultrasound data as a Casorati matrix;
- (c) generating clutter-filtered Doppler ensemble (CFDE) data with the computer system by inputting the spatiotemporal matrix data to a clutter filter, generating output as the CFDE data;
- (d) generating with the computer system, spatiotemporal correlation data by inputting the CFDE data to a spatiotemporal correlation filter, generating output as the spatiotemporal correlation data;
- (e) generating a synthetic noise image with the computer system based on statistics computed from the spatiotemporal correlation data;
- (f) estimating background noise field data from the synthetic noise image using the computer system;
- (g) generating a power Doppler image from the CFDE data using the computer system;
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- (h) generating a noise-suppressed power Doppler image with the computer system by normalizing the power Doppler image using the background noise field data, wherein the noise-suppressed power Doppler image depicts microvessels in the subject.
A method for generating motion corrected Doppler ensemble data, the method comprising:
- (a) accessing with a computer system, ultrasound data acquired from a subject with an ultrasound system, wherein the ultrasound data comprise image frames obtained at a plurality of different time points;
- (b) generating local motion data from the ultrasound data by tracking displacements in one or more local regions in the ultrasound data and storing the tracked displacements as the local motion data;
- (c) generating clutter-filtered Doppler ensemble (CFDE) data with the computer system by inputting the ultrasound data to a clutter filter, generating output as the CFDE data;
- (d) generating motion corrected Doppler ensemble data by inputting the local motion data and the CFDE data to a local non-rigid motion correction algorithm, generating output as the motion corrected Doppler ensemble data.
A method for generating predictive score data indicating a prediction of intraventricular hemorrhage in a neonatal subject, the method comprising:
- (a) accessing with a computer system, ultrasound data acquired from a neonatal subject with an ultrasound system, wherein the ultrasound data comprise image frames obtained at a plurality of different time points;
- (b) generating clutter-filtered Doppler ensemble (CFDE) data with the computer system by inputting the ultrasound data to a clutter filter, generating output as the CFDE data;
- (c) generating quantitative parameter data from the CFDE data;
- (d) extracting feature data from the quantitative parameter data;
- (e) inputting the quantitative parameter data and the feature data to a decision tree algorithm, generating output as predictive score data indicating a prediction of intraventricular hemorrhage in the neonatal subject.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.