Ultrasound (US) imaging technique is one of the most common imaging techniques in clinical applications. However, the spatial resolution of ultrasound is limited. Recently, a fast super-resolution ultrasound imaging (SR-US) technique has been proposed to break the diffraction limit, which is implemented by using super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI) method. Further, to reduce the nonlinear response to brightness and blinking heterogeneities in highorder SOFI image, a balanced SOFI (bSOFI) method can also be used in SR-US. It should note that when using bSOFI method, the point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system is a key factor that affect the obtained imaging performance of SR-US. However, bSOFI is a method from optical microscopy. The PSF of optical system is significantly different from PSF of US system. To better apply bSOFI method to ultrasound, in this paper, we investigate the effect of PSF on the imaging performance of SR-US. Especially, to speed up the data acquisition and further improve the temporal resolution of SR-US, here, the US data are acquired by plane wave (PW) scan. The results from the numerical simulation indicate that when considering the characteristic of PSF in ultrasound (i.e., σ x≠ σy ), by using bSOFI method, we can greatly improve the imaging performance of US, where the smaller line structure can be effectively resolved compared to the standard US imaging method. As a result, the technique (bSOFI method combined PW scan) provide the potential in ultrafast SR-US imaging.
Super-resolution ultrasound (SR-US) imaging can achieve a ten-fold resolution improvement compared with the traditional ultrasound technique, which is important for the medical diagnosis and treatment. However, challenges remain in SR-US imaging. In this paper, on one hand, a Gaussian fitting method, derived from optical localization microscopy, is used to improve the imaging spatial resolution of the SR-US. On the other hand, a plane wave technique is also used in US imaging for improving the imaging speed of the SR-US. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, the numerical simulation was performed based on a phantom model. The experimental results indicate that by the use of a Gaussian fitting location method, combined with a plane wave transmission technique, we can accurately image the movement of microbubble in the phantom at a high frame rate, compared to the conventional B-model imaging. Hence, the technique makes it possible to achieve fast SR-US imaging.
Ultrasound (US) imaging technique is currently one of the most common imaging techniques in clinical application, but the spatial resolution is low. Recently, with the aid of contrast agents, super-resolution ultrasound imaging technique has been proposed, which can overcome the diffraction limit in US by using the super-localization method, similar to superresolution optical microscopy. But, there is still a trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution in super-resolution US imaging. To address the problem, inspired by super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI), in this paper, we apply SOFI to US imaging to achieve a good imaging performance. Further, to cancel the nonlinear response to brightness in SOFI, the balanced SOFI (bSOFI) is also used in this paper, which allows to achieve the higher spatial resolution. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method, the numerical simulation was performed based on a dynamic phantom model, which was scanned by synthetic transmit aperture (STA) technique. The result indicates that by using the proposed method (SOFI or bSOFI), the imaging performance of US can be improved compared to STA. In addition, when using bSOFI method, the imaging performance of super-resolution US can be further improved, compared with SOFI method.
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