A Performance Evaluation of Filtered Delay Multiply and Sum Beamforming for Ultrasound Localization Microscopy: Preliminary Results (2402.17643v1)
Abstract: Ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM), which has shown promising results in microvascular imaging, overcomes the typical trade-off between resolution and penetration depth. Combining ultrasound contrast agents and high frame rate imaging enables ULM to visualize microvasculature and quantify flow. However, the quality of the microvascular maps obtained depends on the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals, image reconstruction techniques, and the microbubble (MB) localization and tracking algorithms used. Most reported research in ULM employs the conventional delay and sum (DAS) beamforming technique for image reconstruction despite its limited contrast and resolution. In this work, a filtered delay multiply and sum (F-DMAS) beamforming approach with non-steered plane wave transmit was employed for ULM, and its performance was compared with the conventional DAS-based approach for the different localization algorithms available in the Localization and Tracking Toolbox for Ultrasound Localization Microscopy. We also introduce two novel image quality measures that can overcome the limitations of conventional quality metrics that require suitable targets for evaluation. We also report the preliminary in-vitro investigation of F-DMAS with B-mode and power Doppler maps for microvascular imaging. The results are promising with enhanced contrast and lateral resolution, and suggest that further experimental studies are warranted.
- M. Tanter and M. Fink, “Ultrafast imaging in biomedical ultrasound,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 102–119, 2014.
- P. Frinking, T. Segers, Y. Luan, and F. Tranquart, “Three decades of ultrasound contrast agents: a review of the past, present and future improvements,” Ultrasound in medicine & biology, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 892–908, 2020.
- O. Couture, V. Hingot, B. Heiles, P. Muleki-Seya, and M. Tanter, “Ultrasound localization microscopy and super-resolution: A state of the art,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 65, no. 8, pp. 1304–1320, 2018.
- K. Christensen-Jeffries et al., “Super-resolution ultrasound imaging,” Ultrasound in medicine & biology, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 865–891, 2020.
- C. Demené et al., “Transcranial ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy of brain vasculature in patients,” Nature biomedical engineering, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 219–228, 2021.
- B. Heiles et al., “Performance benchmarking of microbubble-localization algorithms for ultrasound localization microscopy,” Nature Biomedical Engineering, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 605–616, 2022.
- A. Corazza et al., “Microbubble detection with adaptive beamforming for ultrasound localization microscopy,” in 2022 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS). IEEE, 2022, pp. 1–4.
- R. Tasbaz and B. M. Asl, “Improvement of microbubbles localization using adaptive beamforming in super-resolution ultrasound imaging,” in 2021 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS). IEEE, 2021, pp. 1–4.
- D. Espíndola, F. Lin, D. E. Soulioti, P. A. Dayton, and G. F. Pinton, “Adaptive multifocus beamforming for contrast-enhanced-super-resolution ultrasound imaging in deep tissue,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 2255–2263, 2018.
- K. Diamantis et al., “Resolving ultrasound contrast microbubbles using minimum variance beamforming,” IEEE transactions on medical imaging, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 194–204, 2018.
- J. A. Jensen and N. B. Svendsen, “Calculation of Pressure Fields from Arbitrarily Shaped, Apodized, and Excited Ultrasound Transducers,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 39, no. 2, 1992.
- J. A. Jensen, “Field: A program for simulating ultrasound systems,” in 10th Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Imaging, vol. 4, 1996, pp. 351–353.
- K. P. Mercado-Shekhar et al., “Effect of clot stiffness on recombinant tissue plasminogen activator lytic susceptibility in vitro,” Ultrasound in medicine & biology, vol. 44, no. 12, pp. 2710–2727, 2018.
- V. A. Kumar, A. N. Madhavanunni, S. Nivetha, and M. R. Panicker, “On the echogenicity of natural starch-based blood mimicking fluids for contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging: Preliminary in-vitro experiments,” in 2024 IEEE South Asian Ultrasonics Symposium (SAUS). IEEE, 2024, in press.
- V. Perrot, M. Polichetti, F. Varray, and D. Garcia, “So you think you can DAS? A viewpoint on delay-and-sum beamforming,” Ultrasonics, vol. 111, no. October 2020, p. 106309, 2021.
- G. Matrone, A. S. Savoia, G. Caliano, and G. Magenes, “The delay multiply and sum beamforming algorithm in ultrasound B-mode medical imaging,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 940–949, 2015.
- P. Song, A. Manduca, J. D. Trzasko, R. E. Daigle, and S. Chen, “On the effects of spatial sampling quantization in super-resolution ultrasound microvessel imaging,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 2264–2276, 2018.
- R. Parthasarathy, “Rapid, accurate particle tracking by calculation of radial symmetry centers,” Nature methods, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 724–726, 2012.
- V. Hingot, “Development of ultrasound localization microscopy to measure cerebral perfusion during stroke: a study in mouse models prior to its translation in humans,” Ph.D. dissertation, Sorbonne université, 2019.
- R. Schaetzing, “Agfa’s musica2, taking image processing to the next level,” Mortsel, Belgium: Agfa Healthcare, 2007.
- M. Sezn, A. Teklap, and R. Schaetzing, “Automatic anatomically selective image enhancement in digital chest radiography,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 154–162, 1989.
Sponsored by Paperpile, the PDF & BibTeX manager trusted by top AI labs.
Get 30 days freePaper Prompts
Sign up for free to create and run prompts on this paper using GPT-5.
Top Community Prompts
Collections
Sign up for free to add this paper to one or more collections.