Real-time speckle reduction and coherence enhancement in ultrasound imaging via nonlinear anisotropic diffusion

Abd‐Elmoniem, Khaled Z.; Youssef, A.-B.M.; Kadah, Yasser M.

doi:10.1109/tbme.2002.1028423

Cited by 356 publications

(206 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The principles of this model may also be adapted to enable quantitative analysis in other imaging methods that suffer from multiple scattering and interference effects, most notably ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound. 23,24 We would like to acknowledge the funding from the following sources: the United States Air Force (FA9550-15-1-0007), the National Institutes of Health (NIH DP50D012179), the National Science Foundation (NSF 1438340), the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Center (DFS# 06-13), the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (SAB15-00003), the Mary Kay Foundation (017-14), the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation, a seed grant from the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and Translation (CCNE-T U54CA151459), and a Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiative Seed Grant for GNR characterization. Additional thanks to the Cell Sciences Imaging Facility (CSIF), the Stanford Nano Center (SNF), and the Stanford Nanocharacterization Lab (SNL) for access to instruments for GNR characterization.…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantitative contrast-enhanced optical coherence tomography

Winetraub

SoRelle

Liba

et al. 2016

Applied Physics Letters

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We have developed a model to accurately quantify the signals produced by exogenous scattering agents used for contrast-enhanced Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). This model predicts distinct concentration-dependent signal trends that arise from the underlying physics of OCT detection. Accordingly, we show that real scattering particles can be described as simplified ideal scatterers with modified scattering intensity and concentration. The relation between OCT signal and particle concentration is approximately linear at concentrations lower than 0.8 particle per imaging voxel. However, at higher concentrations, interference effects cause signal to increase with a square root dependence on the number of particles within a voxel. Finally, high particle concentrations cause enough light attenuation to saturate the detected signal. Predictions were validated by comparison with measured OCT signals from gold nanorods (GNRs) prepared in water at concentrations ranging over five orders of magnitude (50 fM to 5 nM). In addition, we validated that our model accurately predicts the signal responses of GNRs in highly heterogeneous scattering environments including whole blood and living animals. By enabling particle quantification, this work provides a valuable tool for current and future contrast-enhanced in vivo OCT studies. More generally, the model described herein may inform the interpretation of detected signals in modalities that rely on coherence-based detection or are susceptible to interference effects. V C 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

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confidence: 99%

Quantitative contrast-enhanced optical coherence tomography

Winetraub

SoRelle

Liba

et al. 2016

Applied Physics Letters

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“…As the PDE filtering methods have achieved good performance in de-speckling for ultrasound images [7], it is necessary to discuss their details here. By observing the three algorithms of the PDE methods, a diffusion model can be divided into isotropic diffusion and anisotropic diffusion, and simply expressed as: I∧ f (t) = I g (t) + ϕ, where ϕ is the diffusion function, I g (t) is the contaminated image, and I∧ f (t) is the result of diffusion.…”

Section: Analysis Of Pde Filtering Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…WJD filter is a modified filter from PMD, aiming to realize the anisotropy diffusion in the discontinuous edge of image. Weickert et al [24] replaced the diffusion coefficient c(x, y, t) in PMD with a second order structure tensor D. This change greatly improves the diffusion model in de-noising effect, and it has been used for de-speckling medical ultrasound image [7] …”

Section: Weickert J Diffusion Filtermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The third one is non-randomly distributed with short-range (NRSR) order [2], and the probability density function (PDF) of the backscattered signal becomes close to Rician distribution. The three classes [7] are associated with a constant Signal Noise Ratio (SNR) of 1.92, below 1.92 [8] and above 1.92, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The PDE methods applied to achieve high-quality image de-noising have attracted extensive attention [7,22]. The diffusion filtering category includes isotropic model such as Perona-Malik diffusion (PMD) filter [23], anisotropic model such as Weickert J Diffusion (WJD) filter [24], and another diffusion model such as Total Variation (TV) filter which was first proposed by Rudin et al [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systematic Evaluation on Speckle Suppression Methods in Examination of Ultrasound Breast Images

2016

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Abstract:Breast ultrasound is an important tool used in the medical treatment and diagnosis of breast tumor. However, noise defined as speckles are generated inevitably. Although the existence of speckle may be beneficial to diagnosis if used by a well-trained observer, it often causes disturbance which negatively affects clinical diagnosis, not only by reducing resolution and contrast of ultrasound images, but also by adding difficulties to recognize tumor region accurately. In this paper, we investigate a number of popular de-speckling algorithms, including filters based on frequency domain, filters based on local statistical properties, filters based on minimum mean square error (MMSE), and filters based on Partial Differential Equation (PDE). Two visual measurement evaluation criteria, i.e., Mean to Variance Ratio (VMR) and Laplace Response of Domain (LRD), are chosen for the performance comparison of those filters in the application of ultrasound breast image filtering. Moreover, the filtering effect is further evaluated with respect to the segmentation accuracy of tumor regions. According to the evaluation results, we conclude that Bilateral Filter (BF) achieves the best visual effect. Although Weickert J Diffusion (WJD) and Total Variation (TV) can also obtain good visual effect and segmentation accuracy, they are very time-consuming.

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Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo at Wavelengths beyond 1500 nm

et al. 2015

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These authors contribute to the work equally.Key words: Imaging Agents, cancer, fluorescence, imaging agents, nanotechnology, near Fluorescence-based optical imaging is indispensable to investigating biological systems with high spatial and temporal resolution. [1] However, a formidable challenge to in vivo fluorescence imaging of live animals has been the limited depth of penetration and inability of high-resolution imaging through live tissues owing to both the absorption and scattering of photons. To circumvent this problem, we and others have recently explored in vivo fluorescence imaging in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) to benefit from reduced photon scattering and achieve higher imaging resolution deeper in the body than with traditional NIR imaging (NIR-I, 750-900 nm). [2] Nevertheless, the NIR-II fluorophores used thus far mainly emit below about 1400 nm, which is still not optimal from the tissue scattering point of view. Although in vivo fluorescence imaging at longer wavelengths would further reduce scattering, increased water absorption upon approaching the infrared region could diminish the intensity of light passing through biological tissues, which is a valid concern that has deterred in vivo fluorescence imaging in the long wavelength NIR region. Another consideration for the development of in vivo fluorescence imaging in the long NIR window is the lack of biocompatible emitters with sufficient brightness. To date, most NIR-II in vivo fluorescence imaging has been based on highpressure carbon monoxide conversion (HiPCO) single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) with a small diameter distribution of 0.7--1.1 nm, emitting band-gap fluorescence in the range of 1000-1400 nm. [2c,g,h,3] We expect that SWNTs with larger diameters, such as SWNTs grown by the laser vaporization method originally developed by Smalley, [4] could enable highresolution fluorescence imaging in the longer-wavelength region.The long wavelength NIR-II region near 1600 nm offers a balance of photonscattering and water-absorption effects, promising to significantly enhance the performance of fluorescence imaging in vivo, by achieving both improved penetration depth and imaging resolution. As shown in the absorption spectrum of water and the extinction spectra of biological tissues (Figure 1a), the near 1600 nm region resides in a local valley between a water vibrational OH stretching overtone absorption peak at approximately 1450 nm and the edge of an increasing water absorption combination band beyond 1700 nm. Thus, the fluorescence imaging window near 1600 nm offers a local minimum in the water absorption spectrum to minimize attenuation of the fluorescence signal caused by water dominant in biological tissues. On the other hand, as photon scattering scales as λ -α (α=0.2--4 for different tissues), [5] the near 1600 nm window provides the lowest photon scattering in the entire NIR-II window (without water absorption dominance), useful for high-resolution, deep-tissue biological imaging.We herein report the succ...

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Real-time speckle reduction and coherence enhancement in ultrasound imaging via nonlinear anisotropic diffusion

Cited by 356 publications

References 24 publications

Quantitative contrast-enhanced optical coherence tomography

Quantitative contrast-enhanced optical coherence tomography

Systematic Evaluation on Speckle Suppression Methods in Examination of Ultrasound Breast Images

Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo at Wavelengths beyond 1500 nm

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