SBIR Phase I: Distributed Adaptive Beamforming for Medical Ultrasound Breast Cancer Screening

SBIR 第一阶段：用于医学超声乳腺癌筛查的分布式自适应波束形成

• 批准号: 1345616
• 负责人: Matthew Pallone
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Clarisond Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2014-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1345616&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Distributed; Adaptive; Beamforming

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a proof-of-concept distributed signal processing system that incorporates real-time adaptive beamforming to increase medical ultrasound imaging resolution and depth of penetration into tissue. Present technology for ultrasound imaging using phased arrays incorporates traditional delay-and-sum beamforming for adding signals from an ultrasound probe coherently. Delays are calculated from an average speed of sound in tissue and the expected round-trip time of a signal emitted by each sensor element given the location in the tissue on which the beam is focused. Fixed delays result in point spread, limiting the depth of penetration of the ultrasound signal into tissue, resulting in poor selectivity (false positives), and thus impacting clinical effectiveness. The objective of this project is to develop a distributed, adaptive approach to beamforming, evaluate the approach numerically, develop prototype signal processing hardware that proves real-time throughput is achievable for a small number of channels, and prove scalability of the associated signal processing hardware to very large arrays thereby increasing sensitivity and selectivity of ultrasound imaging.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project extends from improved image quality, providing a viable screening technology for the 26 million women who have mammographically dense breast tissue. It is expected to reduce the number of missed lesions (false negatives) with fewer false positives therefore reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies performed based on current screening technologies. Early detection of cancer in these women will lead to early interventions, saving lives and reducing cost of care, and requiring less invasive treatment by avoiding radiation and chemotherapy. While the innovation is targeted initially to screening ultrasound for breast imaging, the technology is a platform and thus commercial potential extends to other ultrasound procedures (e.g., cardiology, prostate cancer screening, vascular imaging), which also will benefit from improved resolution and depth of penetration.

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在开发一种概念验证分布式信号处理系统，该系统采用实时自适应波束形成，以提高医疗超声成像分辨率和组织穿透深度。用于使用相控阵列的超声成像的当前技术结合了传统的延迟求和波束成形，用于相干地添加来自超声探头的信号。根据组织中声音的平均速度和由每个传感器元件发射的信号的预期往返时间来计算延迟，该传感器元件给出了波束在组织中聚焦的位置。固定延迟导致点扩散，限制超声信号穿透到组织中的深度，导致选择性差（假阳性），从而影响临床有效性。该项目的目标是开发一种分布式的自适应波束形成方法，对该方法进行数值评估，开发原型信号处理硬件，证明对于少量信道可以实现实时吞吐量，并证明了相关信号处理硬件对非常大的阵列的可扩展性，从而提高了超声成像的灵敏度和选择性。这一项目的商业潜力包括提高图像质量，为2 600万患有乳房X线摄影致密乳腺组织的妇女提供可行的筛查技术。预计将减少漏诊病变（假阴性）的数量，同时减少假阳性，从而减少基于当前筛查技术进行的不必要活检的数量。早期发现这些妇女的癌症将导致早期干预，挽救生命和降低护理成本，并通过避免放射和化疗来减少侵入性治疗。 虽然这项创新最初的目标是筛查乳房成像的超声，但该技术是一个平台，因此商业潜力扩展到其他超声程序（例如，心脏病学、前列腺癌筛查、血管成像），这也将受益于提高的分辨率和穿透深度。