A Generalized Speckle Tracking Algorithm for Ultrasonic Strain Imaging Using Dynamic Programming

Jiang, Jingfeng; Hall, Timothy J.

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2009.05.016

Cited by 67 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Papers by other authors [104][105][106][107][108] are concerned with cross-correlation. Generally, this research involved external surface displacement, although there is one example in which an angioplasty balloon containing an intravascular ultrasonic scanner was used to stress the wall of the coronary artery [109], allowing plaques to be classified as hard, soft or homogeneous.…”

Section: Review Medical Ultrasonic Elastography P N T Wells and Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical ultrasound: imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity

Wells

Liang

2011

J. R. Soc. Interface.

448

322

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After X-radiography, ultrasound is now the most common of all the medical imaging technologies. For millennia, manual palpation has been used to assist in diagnosis, but it is subjective and restricted to larger and more superficial structures. Following an introduction to the subject of elasticity, the elasticity of biological soft tissues is discussed and published data are presented. The basic physical principles of pulse-echo and Doppler ultrasonic techniques are explained. The history of ultrasonic imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity is summarized, together with a brief critique of previously published reviews. The relevant techniques—low-frequency vibration, step, freehand and physiological displacement, and radiation force (displacement, impulse, shear wave and acoustic emission)—are described. Tissue-mimicking materials are indispensible for the assessment of these techniques and their characteristics are reported. Emerging clinical applications in breast disease, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, gynaecology, minimally invasive surgery, musculoskeletal studies, radiotherapy, tissue engineering, urology and vascular disease are critically discussed. It is concluded that ultrasonic imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity is now sufficiently well developed to have clinical utility. The potential for further research is examined and it is anticipated that the technology will become a powerful mainstream investigative tool.

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Section: Review Medical Ultrasonic Elastography P N T Wells and Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical ultrasound: imaging of soft tissue strain and elasticity

Wells

Liang

2011

J. R. Soc. Interface.

448

322

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…When the mesh becomes too refined relative to the resolution of the image correlation code, however, noise effects pollute the results. Tracking techniques based on inherent image texture [77], measured fiber alignment [62], [78], [79], or natural speckle in an ultrasound image [80], [81] can all provide the potential for better resolution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic Segmentation of Mechanically Inhomogeneous Tissues Based on Deformation Gradient Jump

Witzenburg

Dhume

Lake

et al. 2016

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

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Variations in properties, active behavior, injury, scarring, and/or disease can all cause a tissue’s mechanical behavior to be heterogeneous. Advances in imaging technology allow for accurate full-field displacement tracking of both in vitro and in vivo deformation from an applied load. While detailed strain fields provide some insight into tissue behavior, material properties are usually determined by fitting stress-strain behavior with a constitutive equation. However, the determination of the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous soft tissue requires a spatially varying constitutive equation (i.e. one in which the material parameters vary with position). We present an approach that computationally dissects the sample domain into many homogeneous subdomains, wherein subdomain boundaries are formed by applying a betweenness based graphical analysis to the deformation gradient field to identify locations with large discontinuities. This novel partitioning technique successfully determined the shape, size and location of regions with locally similar material properties for: (1) a series of simulated soft tissue samples prescribed with both abrupt and gradual changes in anisotropy strength, prescribed fiber alignment, stiffness, and nonlinearity, (2) tissue analogs (PDMS and collagen gels) which were tested biaxially and speckle tracked (3) and soft tissues which exhibited a natural variation in properties (cadaveric supraspinatus tendon), a pathologic variation in properties (thoracic aorta containing transmural plaque), and active behavior (contracting cardiac sheet). The routine enables the dissection of samples computationally rather than physically, allowing for the study of small tissues specimens with unknown and irregular inhomogeneity.

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“…This is the motivation behind coarse-tofine approaches such as those in [56][57][58][59] which rely on data quality assessment and make use of guided searches to further constrain and regularize output. Regularization can also be imposed through a global cost function implemented, for example, using dynamic programming [59][60]. Higher precision in displacement estimates has also been achieved through cubic splines [61] and angular phase [62] interpolation.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%