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The impact of monodisperse microbubble size on contrast-enhanced ultrasound super-localization imaging

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Title: The impact of monodisperse microbubble size on contrast-enhanced ultrasound super-localization imaging
Authors: Peiran Chen, Andreas M. A. O. Pollet, Simona Turco, Miguel de Vargas, Lisa te Winkel, Wim van Hoeve, Jaap M. J. den Toonder, Hessel Wijkstra, Massimo Mischi
Source: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 157:2687-2696
Publisher Information: Acoustical Society of America (ASA), 2025.
Publication Year: 2025
Subject Terms: Microbubbles, Phantoms, Imaging, Microvessels, Contrast Media/chemistry, Pressure, Contrast Media, Microvessels/diagnostic imaging, Ultrasonography/methods, Signal-To-Noise Ratio, Particle Size, Phantoms, Imaging, Ultrasonography
Description: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) super-localization imaging has shown promise for the assessment of microvascular networks by localizing and tracking microbubbles. The size of the available microbubbles for clinical use is polydisperse, but size-tailorable monodisperse microbubbles are now being developed that present a narrow size distribution. Therefore, proper frequency and pressure tuning have the potential to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and resolution of CEUS acquisitions, which can be expected to increase the performance of CEUS super-localization imaging. In this work, the impact of monodisperse microbubble size on CEUS imaging quality and the efficacy of super-localization imaging was investigated by jointly tuning different frequencies and pressures for different monodisperse microbubble size when performing in vitro CEUS imaging of microbubbles flowing through a dedicated sugar-printed dual-bifurcation microvasculature phantom. The obtained CEUS acquisitions were then post-processed to generate a super-localization output using the Gaussian-centroid localization approach. Four metrics, including generalized contrast-to-noise ratio, full-width half-maximum, number of localization events, and localization F1-score, were employed to quantify the CEUS imaging quality and super-localization performance. In general, jointly optimizing the transmit frequency and pressure for monodisperse microbubbles with smaller size leads to improved CEUS imaging and better super-localization performance. Yet, the weaker backscatter of smaller microbubbles must also be considered.
Document Type: Article
Language: English
ISSN: 1520-8524
DOI: 10.1121/10.0036371
Access URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40207997
Accession Number: edsair.doi.dedup.....8838044248ff8d04e5eaa0c747d3093b
Database: OpenAIRE
Description
Abstract:Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) super-localization imaging has shown promise for the assessment of microvascular networks by localizing and tracking microbubbles. The size of the available microbubbles for clinical use is polydisperse, but size-tailorable monodisperse microbubbles are now being developed that present a narrow size distribution. Therefore, proper frequency and pressure tuning have the potential to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and resolution of CEUS acquisitions, which can be expected to increase the performance of CEUS super-localization imaging. In this work, the impact of monodisperse microbubble size on CEUS imaging quality and the efficacy of super-localization imaging was investigated by jointly tuning different frequencies and pressures for different monodisperse microbubble size when performing in vitro CEUS imaging of microbubbles flowing through a dedicated sugar-printed dual-bifurcation microvasculature phantom. The obtained CEUS acquisitions were then post-processed to generate a super-localization output using the Gaussian-centroid localization approach. Four metrics, including generalized contrast-to-noise ratio, full-width half-maximum, number of localization events, and localization F1-score, were employed to quantify the CEUS imaging quality and super-localization performance. In general, jointly optimizing the transmit frequency and pressure for monodisperse microbubbles with smaller size leads to improved CEUS imaging and better super-localization performance. Yet, the weaker backscatter of smaller microbubbles must also be considered.
ISSN:15208524
DOI:10.1121/10.0036371