Fast 3D Super-Resolution Ultrasound With Adaptive Weight-Based Beamforming

Objective: Super-resolution ultrasound (SRUS) imaging through localising and tracking sparse microbubbles has been shown to reveal microvascular structure and flow beyond the wave diffraction limit. Most SRUS studies use standard delay and sum (DAS) beamforming, where high side lobes and broad main...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2023-09, Vol.PP (9), p.1-10
Main Authors: Yan, Jipeng, Wang, Bingxue, Riemer, Kai, Hansen-Shearer, Joseph, Lerendegui, Marcelo, Toulemonde, Matthieu, Rowlands, Christopher J, Weinberg, Peter D., Tang, Meng-Xing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D beamforming
Array signal processing
Beamforming
Biomedical materials
Coherence
Computer simulation
contrast-enhanced ultrasound
Image acquisition
Image reconstruction
Image resolution
Imaging
Lobes
Microvasculature
Probes
Sidelobe reduction
Sidelobes
Simulation
super-resolution
Three-dimensional displays
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasound
Ultrasound localisation microscopy (ULM)
Wave diffraction
Weight
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Summary:Objective: Super-resolution ultrasound (SRUS) imaging through localising and tracking sparse microbubbles has been shown to reveal microvascular structure and flow beyond the wave diffraction limit. Most SRUS studies use standard delay and sum (DAS) beamforming, where high side lobes and broad main lobes make isolation and localisation of densely distributed bubbles challenging, particularly in 3D due to the typically small aperture of matrix array probes. Method: This study aimed to improve 3D SRUS by implementing a new fast 3D coherence beamformer based on channel signal variance. Two additional fast coherence beamformers, that have been implemented in 2D were implemented in 3D for the first time as comparison: a nonlinear beamformer with p-th root compression and a coherence factor beamformer. The 3D coherence beamformers, together with DAS, were compared in computer simulation, on a microflow phantom and in vivo. Results: Simulation results demonstrated that all three adaptive weight-based beamformers can narrow the main lobe suppress the side lobes, while maintaining the weaker scatter signals. Improved 3D SRUS images of microflow phantom and a rabbit kidney within a 3-second acquisition were obtained using the adaptive weight-based beamformers, when compared with DAS. Conclusion: The adaptive weight-based 3D beamformers can improve the SRUS and the proposed variance-based beamformer performs best in simulations and experiments. Significance: Fast 3D SRUS would significantly enhance the potential utility of this emerging imaging modality in a broad range of biomedical applications.
ISSN:0018-9294
1558-2531
DOI:10.1109/TBME.2023.3263369