1. High Contrast Ultrasonic Method With Multi-Spatiotemporal Compounding for Monitoring Catheter-Based Ultrasound Thermal Therapy: Development and Ex Vivo Evaluations
- Author
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Wang, Diya, Adams, Matthew S, Jones, Peter D, Liu, Dong, Burdette, Everette C, and Diederich, Chris J
- Subjects
Engineering ,Biomedical Engineering ,Biomedical Imaging ,Cancer ,Bioengineering ,Catheters ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Diagnostic Imaging ,Humans ,Liver ,Ultrasonic Therapy ,Ultrasonics ,Ultrasonography ,Imaging ,Monitoring ,Medical treatment ,Ultrasonic imaging ,Temperature measurement ,Temperature sensors ,Heating systems ,Catheter-based ultrasound ,thermal therapy ,change in backscatter energy ,ultrasound monitoring ,tissue-modification-ratio ,Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Biomedical engineering ,Electronics ,sensors and digital hardware ,Computer vision and multimedia computation - Abstract
ObjectiveChanges in ultrasound backscatter energy (CBE) imaging can monitor thermal therapy. Catheter-based ultrasound (CBUS) can treat deep tumors with precise spatial control of energy deposition and ablation zones, of which CBE estimation can be limited by low contrast and robustness due to small or inconsistent changes in ultrasound data. This study develops a multi-spatiotemporal compounding CBE (MST-CBE) imaging approach for monitoring specific to CBUS thermal therapy.MethodsEx vivo thermal ablations were performed with stereotactic positioning of a 180° directional CBUS applicator, temperature monitoring probes, endorectal US probe, and subsequent lesion sectioning and measurement. Five frames of raw radiofrequency data were acquired throughout in 15s intervals. Using window-by-window estimation methods, absolute and positive components of MST-CBE images at each point were obtained by the compounding ratio of squared envelope data within an increasing spatial size in each short-time window.ResultsCompared with conventional US, Nakagami, and CBE imaging, the detection contrast and robustness quantified by tissue-modification-ratio improved by 37.2 ± 4.7 (p < 0.001), 37.5 ± 5.2 (p < 0.001), and 6.4 ± 4.0 dB (p < 0.05) in the MST-CBE imaging, respectively. Correlation coefficient and bias between cross-sectional dimensions of the ablation zones measured in tissue sections and estimated from MST-CBE were up to 0.91 (p < 0.001) and -0.02 mm2, respectively.ConclusionThe MST-CBE approach can monitor the detailed changes within target tissues and effectively characterize the dimensions of the ablation zone during CBUS energy deposition.SignificanceThe MST-CBE approach could be practical for improved accuracy and contrast of monitoring and evaluation for CBUS thermal therapy.
- Published
- 2021