High Frame Rate Vascular Ultrasound Innovations for Complex Flow Imaging

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Technologies that render flow dynamics in human arteries are highly useful in the detection of vascular abnormalities. One key application area is the diagnosis of carotid atherosclerosis, a vascular disease marked by the formation of plaques that narrow the circulatory branch supplying blood to the brain. My research program will seek to make significant advances in vascular diagnostics by engineering new three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging solutions that can examine, over different phases of a pulsatile pulse cycle, the spatiotemporal evolution of complex flow patterns in major arteries such as the carotid. Specifically, my team will aim to: 1) Design a high-frame-rate 3D complex flow imaging framework to achieve time-resolved dynamic rendering of complex flow inside arterial volumes (sub-millisecond time resolution; well beyond the typical video display rate of 20-30 frames per second); 2) Formulate new solutions for system hardware (array transducer, interfacing electronics) and real-time computing (graphics processing unit processing) that are essential to practical realization of high-frame-rate 3D complex flow imaging; 3) Devise hemodynamic parameter visualization algorithms based on flow vector analysis (space-time mapping of wall shear rate, vorticity, and helicity) to derive functional insights from complex flow patterns; 4) Analyze the practical efficacy of our imaging innovations by designing 3D flow phantoms (e.g. models of aneurysms and vascular trees) and performing a series of flow experimentation in vitro. Our proposed innovation endeavors will lead to the first non-invasive medical imaging solutions of their kind that can effectively trace 3D complex hemodynamics in a time-resolved manner under point-of-care settings and without using ionizing radiation. They will play an enabling role in facilitating clinicians to make more informed diagnosis of vascular pathologies such as atherosclerosis. In turn, vascular patients will be the principal beneficiaries; for instance, improved diagnosis of carotid atherosclerosis can help reduce the incidence of stroke, which is responsible for 14,000 deaths per year in Canada. This research will also benefit the grooming of Canada’s R&D talent pool in biomedical engineering and the strengthening of Canada’s core competence in ultrasound imaging R&D, establishing Canada’s position as a global leader in this field.