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Applied Sciences
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Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications
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Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2024) | Viewed by 9035

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Laura Peralta

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Surgical and Interventional Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
Interests: beamforming; high frame rate; large aperture; multi-transducer; ultrasound
Dr. Kirsten Christensen-Jeffries

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 7EH, UK
Interests: ultrasound; contrast agent; microbubbles; microvascular; super-resolution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ultrasound technology has significantly improved over the last several decades thanks to advances in imaging technology. Recent developments in pulse sequences, signal processing and transducer designs have allowed high-frame-rate imaging capabilities, new algorithm-based imaging methods, and 3D imaging technologies. These provide the potential for new ultrasound clinical applications.

This Special Issue is devoted to the development of innovative ultrasound imaging technologies and their applications in healthcare and medicine. Authors should demonstrate advancements in ultrasound imaging technologies that are the forefront of state-of-the-art techniques, or that provide a novel or original solution to an existing clinical challenge. We welcome contributions (original research articles or reviews) from a broad spectrum of fields which focus on methods, implementation and medical applications of ultrasound imaging. We particularly welcome developments in the areas of advanced beamforming, quantitative flow imaging, super-resolution, and 3D imaging.

Dr. Laura Peralta
Dr. Kirsten Christensen-Jeffries
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ultrasound imaging
  • medical ultrasound
  • 3D imaging
  • super resolution
  • beamforming
  • high frame rate
  • flow imaging

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

11 pages, 2877 KiB  
Article
Effects of Polyurethane Absorber for Improving the Contrast between Fascia and Muscle in Diagnostic Ultrasound Images
by Chan-Sol Park, Soo-Jin Ahn, Yeong-Bae Lee and Chang-Ki Kang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(5), 2126; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14052126 - 04 Mar 2024
Viewed by 577
Abstract
In ultrasound diagnostics, acoustic absorbers block unwanted acoustic energy or prevent the reception of echo signals from structures outside the target area. Non-metallic absorbers provide a low-echoic signal that is suitable for observing the anatomy of the area to which the absorber is [...] Read more.
In ultrasound diagnostics, acoustic absorbers block unwanted acoustic energy or prevent the reception of echo signals from structures outside the target area. Non-metallic absorbers provide a low-echoic signal that is suitable for observing the anatomy of the area to which the absorber is attached. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of a polyurethane film absorber (PU) on ultrasound diagnostic imaging and investigate its effectiveness in improving the image contrast between the fascia and muscle structures. Twenty-six healthy men in their twenties participated in this study. The experiment was performed with the participant in the supine position and with an ultrasound transducer probe placed at the center of the measurement area on the abdomen. Images of the rectus abdominis (RA; muscle) and rectus sheath, e.g., fascia including superficial fascia (SF) and deep fascia (DF), obtained after attaching a PU, were compared with those obtained without the absorber (No_PU). The thickness was measured using brightness mode ultrasound imaging. To analyze the quantitative differences in the fascia and muscle images depending on the presence of the absorber, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were derived from the signal intensities measured in the target areas. The thickness of the fascia and muscle was similar in all regions of interest, regardless of the absorber; therefore, the existing diagnostic value was maintained. Overall, the signal intensity decreased; however, the SNRs of the RA, SF, and DF differed significantly. The SNR of the RA decreased in the PU but increased for the SF and DF. The CNRs for SF-RA and DF-RA significantly increased with the PU. In this study, we demonstrated that the PU behaved similarly to previously used metallic absorbers, reducing the signal from the attachment site while accurately indicating the attachment site in the ultrasound images. Furthermore, the results showed that the PU efficiently distinguished fascia from surrounding tissues, which could support studies requiring increased signal contrast between fascia and muscle tissue and aid the clinical diagnosis of fascial diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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20 pages, 13074 KiB  
Article
Comparative Study of Ultrasound Tissue Motion Tracking Techniques for Effective Breast Ultrasound Elastography
by Matthew Caius and Abbas Samani
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(21), 11912; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132111912 - 31 Oct 2023
Viewed by 889
Abstract
Breast cancer is the most common and deadly cancer in women, where early detection is of the utmost importance as survival rates decrease with the advancement of the disease. Most available methods of breast cancer screening and evaluation lack the ability to effectively [...] Read more.
Breast cancer is the most common and deadly cancer in women, where early detection is of the utmost importance as survival rates decrease with the advancement of the disease. Most available methods of breast cancer screening and evaluation lack the ability to effectively differentiate between benign and malignant lesions without a biopsy. Ultrasound elastography (USE) is a cost-effective method that can potentially provide an initial malignancy assessment at the bedside. One of the challenges, however, is the uncertainty of tissue displacement data when performing USE due to out-of-plane movement of the tissue during mechanical stimulation, in addition to the computational efficiency necessary for real-time image reconstruction. This work presents a comparison of four different theoretically sound displacement estimators for their ability in tissue Young’s modulus reconstruction level with an emphasis on quality-to-runtime ratio to determine which estimators are most suitable for real-time USE systems. The methods are known in literature as AM2D, GLUE, OVERWIND, and SOUL methods. The effectiveness of each method was assessed as a stand-alone method or in combination with a strain field enhancement technique known as STREAL, which was recently developed using tissue mechanics-based regularization. The study was performed using radiofrequency US data pertaining to in silico and tissue mimicking phantoms in addition to clinical data. This data was used to generate tissue displacement fields employed to generate axial and lateral strain images before Young’s modulus images were reconstructed. The study indicates that the AM2D displacement estimator, which is an older and computationally less involved method, along with a tissue-mechanics-based image processing algorithm, performs very well, with high CNR, SNR, and preservation of tumor heterogeneity obtained at both strain and stiffness image levels, while its computation run-time is much lower compared to other estimation methods. As such, it can be recommended for incorporation in real-time USE systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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15 pages, 3992 KiB  
Article
On the Arrays Distribution, Scan Sequence and Apodization in Coherent Dual-Array Ultrasound Imaging Systems
by Laura Peralta, Daniele Mazierli, Kirsten Christensen-Jeffries, Alessandro Ramalli, Piero Tortoli and Joseph V. Hajnal
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(19), 10924; https://doi.org/10.3390/app131910924 - 02 Oct 2023
Viewed by 768
Abstract
Coherent multi-transducer ultrasound (CoMTUS) imaging creates an extended effective aperture through the coherent combination of multiple arrays, which results in images with enhanced resolution, extended field-of-view, and higher sensitivity. However, this also creates a large discontinuous effective aperture that presents additional challenges for [...] Read more.
Coherent multi-transducer ultrasound (CoMTUS) imaging creates an extended effective aperture through the coherent combination of multiple arrays, which results in images with enhanced resolution, extended field-of-view, and higher sensitivity. However, this also creates a large discontinuous effective aperture that presents additional challenges for current beamforming methods. The discontinuities may increase the level of grating and side lobes and degrade contrast. Also, direct transmissions between multiple arrays, happening at certain transducer relative positions, produce undesirable cross-talk artifacts. Hence, the position of the transducers and the scan sequence play key roles in the beamforming algorithm and imaging performance of CoMTUS. This work investigates the role of the distribution of the individual arrays and the scan sequence in the imaging performance of a coherent dual-array system. First, the imaging performance for different configurations was assessed numerically using the point-spread-function, and then optimized settings were tested on a tissue mimicking phantom. Finally, a subset of the proposed optimum imaging schemes was experimentally validated on two synchronized ULA OP-256 systems equipped with identical linear arrays. Results show that CoMTUS imaging performance can be enhanced by optimizing the relative position of the arrays and the scan sequence together, and that the use of apodization can reduce cross-talk artifacts without degrading spatial resolution. Adding weighted compounding further decreases artifacts and helps to compensate for the differences in the brightness across the image. Setting the maximum steering angle according to the spatial configuration of the arrays reduces the sidelobe energy up to 10 dB plus an extra 4 dB reduction is possible when increasing the number of PWs compounded. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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16 pages, 3597 KiB  
Article
Implementation of Constrained Swept Synthetic Aperture Using a Mechanical Fixture
by Nick Bottenus
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(8), 4797; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13084797 - 11 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1168
Abstract
Resolution and target detectability in ultrasound imaging are directly tied to the size of the imaging array. This is particularly important for imaging at depth, such as in the detection and diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and other lesions in the liver. Swept synthetic [...] Read more.
Resolution and target detectability in ultrasound imaging are directly tied to the size of the imaging array. This is particularly important for imaging at depth, such as in the detection and diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and other lesions in the liver. Swept synthetic aperture (SSA) imaging has shown promise for building large effective apertures from small physical arrays using motion but has required bulky fixtures and external motion tracking for precise positioning. This study presents an approach that constrains the transducer motion with a simple linear sliding fixture and estimates motion from the ultrasound data itself using either speckle tracking or channel correlation. This work demonstrates, through simulation and phantom experiments, the ability of both techniques to accurately estimate lateral transducer motion and form SSA images with improved resolution and target detectability. In simulation, errors were observed under 83 μm across a 50 mm sweep, and improvements were found of up to 61% in resolution and up to 33% in lesion detectability experimentally even imaging through ex vivo tissue layers. This approach will increase the accessibility of SSA imaging and allow researchers to test its use in clinical settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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10 pages, 2440 KiB  
Communication
Wavefront Shaping-Assisted Forward-Viewing Photoacoustic Endomicroscopy Based on a Transparent Ultrasound Sensor
by Tianrui Zhao, Mengjiao Zhang, Sebastien Ourselin and Wenfeng Xia
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(24), 12619; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122412619 - 09 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1549
Abstract
Photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE) can provide 3D functional, molecular and structural information of tissue deep inside the human body, and thus could be well suited for guiding minimally invasive procedures such as tumour biopsy and fetal surgery. One of the major challenges in the [...] Read more.
Photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE) can provide 3D functional, molecular and structural information of tissue deep inside the human body, and thus could be well suited for guiding minimally invasive procedures such as tumour biopsy and fetal surgery. One of the major challenges in the development of miniature PAE probes, in particular, forward-viewing PAE probes, is the integration of a sensitive and broadband ultrasound sensor with the light delivery and scanning system into a small footprint. In this work, we developed a forward-viewing PAE probe enabling optical-resolution microscopy imaging based on a transparent ultrasound sensor coated on the distal end of a multimode optical fibre. The transparent sensor comprised a transparent polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) thin film coated with indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes with a diameter of 2 mm. Excitation laser light was focused and raster-scanned across the facet of the probe tip through the multimode fibre and the PVDF-ITO thin film via wavefront shaping. The sensor had an optical transmission rate of 55–72% in the wavelength range of 400 to 800 nm, a centre frequency of 17.5 MHz and a −10 dB bandwidth of 25 MHz. Singular value decomposition was used to remove a prominent trigger-induced noise, which enabled imaging close to the probe tip with an optically defined lateral resolution of 2 µm. The performance of the imaging probe was demonstrated by obtaining high-fidelity photoacoustic microscopy images of carbon fibres. With further optimisation of the sensitivity, the probe promises to guide minimally invasive procedures by providing in situ, in vivo characterisation of tissue. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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20 pages, 3083 KiB  
Article
High-Quality Coherent Plane-Wave Compounding Using Enhanced Covariance-Matrix-Based Statistical Beamforming
by Yuanguo Wang, Chichao Zheng, Hu Peng and Yadan Wang
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(21), 10973; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122110973 - 29 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1274
Abstract
Coherent plane-wave compounding (CPWC) enables high-frame-rate ultrasound imaging, but the imaging quality is mainly determined by the beamforming method. Covariance-matrix-based statistical beamforming (CMSB) was previously proposed for synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging, which provides notable improvements in resolution and contrast over conventional delay-and-sum (DAS). [...] Read more.
Coherent plane-wave compounding (CPWC) enables high-frame-rate ultrasound imaging, but the imaging quality is mainly determined by the beamforming method. Covariance-matrix-based statistical beamforming (CMSB) was previously proposed for synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging, which provides notable improvements in resolution and contrast over conventional delay-and-sum (DAS). However, the speckle quality is inadequate in the phantom experiment, and there exists a tradeoff between the contrast and speckle preservation of CMSB due to the constant diagonal reducing factor. In this paper, we applied CMSB in CPWC ultrasound imaging and propose an enhanced CMSB approach for CPWC to enhance the image quality. First, we introduced lag-one coherence (LOC) as an adaptive weighting factor for CMSB to suppress incoherent noise. Then, we propose adaptive diagonal reducing for CMSB using the coherence factor and amplitude standard deviation, with the aim to further improve the speckle quality. Finally, the combination of LOC weighting and adaptive diagonal reducing is proposed for CMSB to simultaneously improve the contrast and speckle quality. A simulation, experiments, and carotid studies were used to validate the imaging performance of the proposed methods. Results from the experiments show that LOC-weighted CMSB (LOCw-CMSB) with adaptive diagonal reducing improves the average contrast, generalized contrast-to-noise ratio (gCNR), and speckle signal-to-noise ratio (sSNR) by 59.9%, 53.6%, and 77.7%, respectively, in comparison with DMAS. The contrast and sSNR of the LOCw-CMSB with adaptive diagonal reducing were improved by 32.3% and 33.1%, respectively, compared to CMSB. In addition, LOCw-CMSB with adaptive diagonal reducing improves the contrast by 176.6% compared with SLSC in the in vivo carotid study, while it obtains a comparable gCNR. These results demonstrate that the proposed methods are effective in improving the image quality of CPWC imaging. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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Review

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15 pages, 2752 KiB  
Review
Ultrasound Elastography in the Evaluations of Tendon-Related Disorders—A Systematic Review
by Gianluca Rossetto, Emilia Scalona, Paolo Comotti, Lorenzo Gatti, Denise Di Maso, Massimiliano Gobbo and Nicola Francesco Lopomo
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(8), 4920; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13084920 - 14 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1890
Abstract
Tendon-related disorders are a common condition in both sports medicine and orthopedic clinical practice. Ultrasonography, power doppler, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are the most widespread technologies, but the use of ultrasound elastography—including strain elastography and shear wave elastography—has been increasing in the [...] Read more.
Tendon-related disorders are a common condition in both sports medicine and orthopedic clinical practice. Ultrasonography, power doppler, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are the most widespread technologies, but the use of ultrasound elastography—including strain elastography and shear wave elastography—has been increasing in the last years. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of ultrasound elastography in tendon-related disorders. Research in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases is performed, and 364 papers are exported. After the study selection process, 38 papers are included in this systematic review. The risk of bias of each paper is evaluated using the RoBANS tool. Blinding, confounding variables, and measurement of exposure are the most affected items. From the included papers, tendinopathy is the most analyzed pathology, followed by tenosynovitis and rotator cuff disease. The Achilles tendon, patellar tendon, and common extensor tendon of the hand are the most analyzed tendons. Ultrasound elastography results in being the method providing good sensitivity and specificity (up to 100% and 100%, respectively, in tendinosis of the long head of the biceps tendon, in transverse plan examination) and accuracy (up to 97.8% in Achilles tendinopathy); furthermore, this technique is able to ensure real-time feedback on tissue elasticity and appears more sensitive than B-mode alone. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Ultrasound Imaging Technologies and Their Medical Applications)
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