High Frame Rate 3-D Super Resolution Ultrasound Microvascular Imaging

高帧率 3D 超分辨率超声微血管成像

• 批准号: 10249991
• 负责人: Paul A Dayton
• 金额: $ 66.71万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-10 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10249991
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Acoustics; Address; Anatomy; Angiography; Atherosclerosis; Blood Vessels; Brain; Breast; Buffers; Cancer Detection; Cancer Model; Clinic; Clinical; Clinical Research; Collaborations; Computer software; Contrast Media; Data; Detection; Development; Diagnostic; Dimensions; Engineering; Exhibits; FDA approved; FPS-FES Oncogene; Fingerprint; Frequencies; Hour; Human; Image; Imaging Techniques; Imaging technology; Industrialization; Lesion; Malignant - descriptor; Malignant Neoplasms; Methods; Microscopy; Morphology; Motion; Motivation; Nature; North Carolina; Oncology; Paper; Performance; Prostate; Public Health; Publishing; Rattus; Research Personnel; Resolution; Rodent; Rodent Model; Safety; Scientist; Seminal; Sensitivity and Specificity; Slice; Specificity; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Three-Dimensional Image; Three-Dimensional Imaging; Thyroid Gland; Time; Tissues; Transducers; Translating; Ultrasonography; Universities; Work; angiogenesis; base; cancer imaging; clinical application; clinically relevant; clinically translatable; computerized data processing; contrast enhanced; contrast imaging; cost; data acquisition; data exchange; data streams; density; design; design and construction; human disease; human model; image processing; imaging approach; imaging modality; improved; in vivo; innovation; new growth; new technology; next generation; novel; novel imaging technique; novel strategies; optical imaging; portability; preclinical study; rapid growth; response; sarcoma; standard of care; targeted biomarker; tumor; tumor growth; vasa vasorum; vector; wound healing

ABSTRACT Recently, the revolutionary technology of super localization microscopy in the optical imaging domain has been translated into the medical ultrasound domain. By localizing the centers of scattering contrast agents, a similar ultrasound localization microscopy technique, also referred to as contrast enhanced super-resolution (CESR) imaging, has been demonstrated with ultrasound. This novel technique enables imaging of microvessels at resolutions as small as ten micrometers, over an order of magnitude smaller than the ultrasound diffraction limit, and at depths much greater than traditionally limited by frequency. In order to achieve advances in all three of these seeming paradoxical dimensions - super-resolution contrast imaging requires that thousands of frames of data to be analyzed, making this technique much slower than standard ultrasound imaging. The result is that super-resolution imaging would be difficult if not impossible to translate to the clinic in its current form with current clinical hardware, especially if 3-D imaging is desired (which it is for microvascular morphological analysis), as a single 3-D image volume would take tens of minutes to acquire. However, there is a solution to this, which our group proposes to achieve in this project. Recent advances in ultrasound hardware have enabled ultra-high frame rate processing. Our academic and clinical teams at UNC Chapel Hill are partnering with Verasonics, Inc, a world leading industrial partner in next-generation ultrasound systems, to develop and translate the first high-frame rate 3-D super resolution imaging modality to the clinic. We will do this by first designing and constructing a 1024 channel ultra-high frame rate ultrasound system, designed to operate with a 32x32 matrix transducer. Ultra-fast processors, large RAM buffers, GPUs, and high- bandwidth data transfer hardware will be utilized to handle the massive data acquisition and processing. New software and implementation approaches designed at UNC, including our innovative adaptive multi-focus beamforming approach, will further increase sensitivity and resolution at clinically relevant depths, and enable full 3-D volume acquisitions at volume frame rates over 5000 FPS, suitable for fast 3-D super-resolution imaging in humans. Our approach will be validated in phantoms, rodent models of human disease, and in two different clinical applications where ultrasound specificity is limited, breast, and thyroid. Our motivation is to develop super-resolution imaging as a novel new approach for imaging angiogenesis – one of the hallmarks of cancer, as a new biomarker target for both diagnostics and assessment of response to therapy. The ability to differentiate lesions based on microvascular fingerprint, rather than tumor anatomy, would be a paradigm shift in ultrasound diagnostics, and will improve the specificity of ultrasound to malignancy, and advance clinically needed in breast, prostate, thyroid, and other oncological applications. However, the advancement of the proposed technology will undoubtedly open doors to other clinical applications as well, such as wound healing and vasa vasorum imaging in atherosclerosis.

摘要 近年来，光学成像领域的革命性技术--超局域化显微技术 已经被翻译到医学超声领域。通过定位散射造影剂的中心， 类似的超声定位显微镜技术，也称为对比度增强超分辨率 （CESR）成像，已经用超声证实。这项新技术能够对微血管进行成像 分辨率小至10微米，比超声衍射小一个数量级， 限制，并在深度远大于传统的频率限制。为了在这三个方面都取得进展， 这些看似矛盾的尺寸-超分辨率对比成像需要数千帧， 这使得该技术比标准超声成像慢得多。结果是 超分辨率成像如果不是不可能的话，也很难以其当前的形式转化到临床上， 临床硬件，特别是如果需要3D成像（用于微血管形态分析）， 单个3-D图像体积将花费数十分钟来获取。 然而，有一个解决方案，我们的小组建议在这个项目中实现。最新进展 在超声硬件中已经实现了超高帧速率处理。我们的学术和临床团队， 查佩尔山正在与Verasonics公司合作，Verasonics公司是下一代超声领域的世界领先工业合作伙伴 系统，开发和翻译的第一个高帧率的三维超分辨率成像模式的临床。 为此，我们将首先设计和构建一个1024通道超高帧率超声系统， 设计用于32 x32矩阵传感器。超快处理器、大容量RAM缓冲区、GPU和高性能 将利用带宽数据传输硬件来处理大量数据采集和处理。新 软件和实施方法，包括我们创新的自适应多焦点 波束成形方法，将进一步提高在临床相关深度的灵敏度和分辨率， 以超过5000 FPS的体积帧速率进行全三维体积采集，适用于快速三维超分辨率成像 在人类身上。我们的方法将在幻影，人类疾病的啮齿动物模型，以及两个不同的实验中得到验证。 超声特异性有限的临床应用，乳腺和甲状腺。 我们的动机是发展超分辨率成像作为一种新的新的方法成像血管生成 - 癌症的标志之一，作为诊断和评估对 疗法基于微血管指纹而不是肿瘤解剖结构来区分病变的能力， 是超声诊断的范式转变，并将提高超声对恶性肿瘤的特异性， 乳腺癌、前列腺癌、甲状腺癌和其他肿瘤应用的临床需要。但 所提出的技术的进步无疑也将为其他临床应用打开大门， 如动脉粥样硬化中的伤口愈合和血管造影。