PMID- 32965033
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20210514
LR  - 20210514
IS  - 2473-4209 (Electronic)
IS  - 0094-2405 (Linking)
VI  - 47
IP  - 11
DP  - 2020 Nov
TI  - In vivo Nakagami-m parametric imaging of microbubble-enhanced ultrasound 
      regulated by RF and VF processing techniques.
PG  - 5659-5668
LID - 10.1002/mp.14474 [doi]
AB  - PURPOSE: Application of the Nakagami statistical model and associated m parameter 
      has the potential to suppress artifacts from adjustable system parameters and 
      operator selections typical in echo amplitude-coded microbubble-enhanced 
      ultrasound (MEUS). However, the feasibility of applying m estimation and 
      determination of the associated Nakagami distribution features for in vivo MEUS 
      remain to be investigated. Sensitivity and discriminability of m-coded MEUS are 
      often limited since raw envelopes are regulated by complex radiofrequency (RF) 
      and video-frequency (VF) processing. This study aims to develop an improved 
      imaging approach for the m parameter estimation which can overcome the above 
      limitations in in vivo condition. METHOD: The regulation effects of RF processing 
      of pulse-inversion (PI) harmonic detection techniques and VF processing of 
      logarithmic compression in Nakagami distributions were investigated in MEUS. A 
      window-modulated compounding moment estimator was developed to estimate the MEUS 
      m values. The sensitivity and discriminability of m-coded MEUS were quantified 
      with contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and axial and 
      lateral resolutions, which were validated through in vivo perfusion experiments 
      on rabbit kidneys. RESULTS: Regulated by RF and VF processing, the distributions 
      of MEUS obeyed the Nakagami statistical model. The Nakagami-fitted correlation 
      coefficient was 0.996 +/- 0.003 (P < 0.05 in the t test and P < 0.001 in the 
      Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Among each of the m-coded MEUS methods, the logarithmic 
      m-coded PI-MEUS scheme effectively characterized the peripheral rim perfusion 
      features and details within the renal cortex. The CTR and CNR in this region 
      reached 7.9 +/- 1.5 dB and 34.4 +/- 1.7 dB, respectively, which were higher than 
      those of standard amplitude-coded MEUS; and the axial and lateral resolutions 
      were 1.02 +/- 0.02 and 0.91 +/- 0.02 mm, respectively, which were slightly longer 
      than those of amplitude-coded MEUS. CONCLUSIONS: The Nakagami statistical model 
      could characterize MEUS even when the envelope distributions were regulated by RF 
      and VF processing. The logarithmic m-coded PI-MEUS scheme significantly improved 
      the sensitivity, discriminability, and robustness of m estimation in MEUS. The 
      scheme provides an option to remove artifacts in echo amplitude-coded MEUS and to 
      distinctly characterize the inherent microvasculature enhanced by microbubbles, 
      with potential to improve and expand the role of MEUS in diagnostic ultrasound.
CI  - (c) 2020 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
FAU - Wang, Diya
AU  - Wang D
AD  - Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 
      94115, USA.
AD  - Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi' 
      an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, P. R. China.
FAU - Liu, Dong
AU  - Liu D
AD  - Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 
      94115, USA.
FAU - Sang, Yuchao
AU  - Sang Y
AD  - Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi' 
      an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, P. R. China.
FAU - Zhang, Yu
AU  - Zhang Y
AD  - Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi' 
      an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, P. R. China.
FAU - Wan, Mingxi
AU  - Wan M
AD  - Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi' 
      an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, P. R. China.
FAU - Diederich, Chris J
AU  - Diederich CJ
AD  - Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 
      94115, USA.
LA  - eng
GR  - R01CA230323/US National Institutes of Health/
GR  - R01EB025990/US National Institutes of Health/
GR  - 81827801/National Natural Science Foundation of China/
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20201010
PL  - United States
TA  - Med Phys
JT  - Medical physics
JID - 0425746
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Artifacts
MH  - *Data Compression
MH  - *Microbubbles
MH  - Perfusion
MH  - Rabbits
MH  - Ultrasonography
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Nakagami model
OT  - harmonic detection
OT  - logarithmic compression
OT  - m parameter
OT  - microbubble-enhanced ultrasound
OT  - pulse inversion
EDAT- 2020/09/24 06:00
MHDA- 2021/05/15 06:00
CRDT- 2020/09/23 09:03
PHST- 2020/01/14 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/07/28 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2020/08/19 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/09/24 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/05/15 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/09/23 09:03 [entrez]
AID - 10.1002/mp.14474 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Med Phys. 2020 Nov;47(11):5659-5668. doi: 10.1002/mp.14474. Epub 2020 Oct 10.