High-Volume Acquisition Rate Nonlinear Imaging Enables Robust 3-D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: 3-D ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) enables comprehensive mapping of microvascular networks by providing micrometer-scale spatial resolution while avoiding projection errors inherent to 2-D ULM imaging. Current 3-D ULM techniques are based on linear pulse sequences combined with spatiotemporal filtering to distinguish microbubble flow from tissue signals. However, singular-value decomposition (SVD)-based filtering demonstrates poor performance in highly mobile organs, suppressing small vessels with slow blood flow along with tissue signals. While imaging based on nonlinear multipulse sequences can isolate microbubble signals regardless of tissue motion, achieving the high-volume acquisition rates required for 3-D ULM remains technically challenging. Here, we present Fast3D-amplitude modulation (AM) imaging, a 3-D nonlinear imaging sequence that achieves a high-volume acquisition rate (225 Hz) using a single 256-channel ultrasound system with a multiplexed 2-D matrix array. We also introduce a motion rejection algorithm that leverages localized microbubble positions to reject respiratory-induced motion artifacts. Fast3D-AM imaging achieved a superior contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) than Fast3D, exhibiting a 6.66-dB improvement in phantom studies. In an in vivo rat study, Fast3D-AM demonstrated higher CTR across all SVD cutoffs compared to Fast3D and preserved both major and microvascular structures in whole-organ kidney imaging.
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,645
Funders: National Science Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Awards: CAREER: Super-resolution Ultrasound Imaging for High-resolution Functional Mapping of the Brain, Next-Generation Ultrasound Localization Microscopy, High-resolution cerebral microvascular imaging for characterizing vascular dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease mouse model, G860676993, Developing ultrasound contrast agents and signal processing for structural and functional imaging in type 1 diabetes
OpenAlex ID: W4412488320