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Relative Elastic Modulus Imaging Using Sector Ultrasound Data for Abdominal Applications: An Evaluation of Strategies and Feasibility
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Relative Elastic Modulus Imaging Using Sector Ultrasound Data for Abdominal Applications: An Evaluation of Strategies and Feasibility

Bo Peng, Yu Wang, Wenjun Yang, Tomy Varghese and Jingfeng Jiang
IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, Vol.63(9), pp.1432-1440
09/01/2016
DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2016.2589270
PMCID: PMC5291116
PMID: 27411219
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5291116View
Open Access

Abstract

We reconstruct the elastic modulus distribution for one tissue mimicking (TM) phantom and two in vivo biopsyconfirmed liver tumors using curvilinear ultrasound echo data. Spatial distribution of the relative elastic modulus values is determined by solving an inverse problem within a region of interest (ROI). This inverse problem solution requires knowledge of the ultrasonically measured displacement field in a uniform rectilinear grid to ensure that the resolution on the resultant relative elastic modulus elastogram will be uniform over the entire ROI. Taking advantage of a new speckle tracking algorithm, two different displacement tracking strategies are investigated: 1) sector-shaped ultrasound data were converted to ultrasound data on a rectilinear grid prior to speckle tracking and 2) axial and lateral displacements directly obtained from sector-shaped data were converted to vertical and horizontal displacements on a rectilinear grid after speckle tracking. Compared with strain elastography (SE), TM phantom results show that relative elastic modulus imaging (REMI) using Strategy 2 provided higher contrast-to-noise ratios (>300% and 25% increases compared with SE and REMI using Strategy 1, respectively). Furthermore, in phantoms, REMI using Strategy 2 more accurately (a 1.3% difference to shear wave elastography measurements) estimated the elastic contrast ratio between the target and the background, compared with both SE (20%-25%) and REMI using Strategy 1 (4.1%). It was also observed that relative modulus elastograms were more consistent with anatomical structures visualized on corresponding B-mode images for the two in vivo liver cases. Overall, we conclude that applying REMI is feasible for abdominal organs such as the liver. Strategy 2 offered improved and consistent results for the data investigated.
Acoustics Engineering Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Science & Technology Technology

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