Ultrafast contrast enhanced ultrasound for imaging and quantifying flow and tissue perfusion
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Bioengineering
Abstract
Imaging and quantifying blood flow and perfusion are critical to the diagnosis and management of a range of major diseases including coronary heart disease, valvular heart disease, carotid, cerebral and peripheral vascular diseases, cancer, and chronic inflammation, all of which manifest themselves with abnormalities in flow and perfusion. Existing imaging and quantification techniques have numerous limitations. Ultrasound imaging is one of the most widely used clinical imaging methods, offering safety, real-time imaging, low cost and excellent accessibility. Recent advances in ultrafast ultrasound techniques can increase ultrasound imaging speed by up to two orders of magnitude and have resulted in exciting developments in non-contrast enhanced ultrasound applications, including soft tissue elastography, brain functional imaging and cardiac imaging. If combined with advances in contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) using microbubble contrast agents, the ultrafast techniques have the potential to improve the conspicuity of the contrast agent by up to 10 times and greatly extend the field of view or the dynamic range of blood flows that can be tracked through ultrasound; these hitherto unrealised improvements could dramatically impact the ability to image and quantify flow and perfusion. In this project we propose to develop and evaluate novel ultrafast CEUS methodologies and systems for this purpose, building on our extensive research experiences on microbubble contrast agent imaging. They have the potential to become the next generation ultrasound tools for pre-clinical and clinical imaging of blood flow and tissue perfusion, giving unprecedented performance in terms of accuracy, SNR, sensitivity, specificity and resolution.
Planned Impact
The proposed project will develop and evaluate new ultrasound tools for imaging and quantification of flow and perfusion. Flow and perfusion are biomarkers for a number of major diseases including coronary heart diseases, cancer, carotid and peripheral vascular diseases, chronic inflammation and valvular heart disease. Patients with these major diseases comprise a very significant fraction of the population. The tools to be developed would be highly valuable for the detection, diagnosis and staging of these diseases and also monitoring of progression and treatment of these diseases. Specifically:
* Patients with the above diseases can benefit from this clinical imaging tool which is safe and easy to access and could lead to fast and better diagnosis, more informed treatment planning, and improved treatment monitoring/evaluation.
* Clinicians can benefit from new imaging tools which offers quantitative vascular information for patient diagnosis and management.
* NHS could benefit from this powerful and affordable imaging tool for assisting the diagnosis and management of patients.
* Microbubble and ultrasound manufacturing industry can benefit from this technique through wider and increased use of microbubbles and ultrasound imaging in hospitals.
* Finally researchers interested in studying the above diseases would also benefit from the new imaging tools for imaging flow and perfusion.
* Patients with the above diseases can benefit from this clinical imaging tool which is safe and easy to access and could lead to fast and better diagnosis, more informed treatment planning, and improved treatment monitoring/evaluation.
* Clinicians can benefit from new imaging tools which offers quantitative vascular information for patient diagnosis and management.
* NHS could benefit from this powerful and affordable imaging tool for assisting the diagnosis and management of patients.
* Microbubble and ultrasound manufacturing industry can benefit from this technique through wider and increased use of microbubbles and ultrasound imaging in hospitals.
* Finally researchers interested in studying the above diseases would also benefit from the new imaging tools for imaging flow and perfusion.
Publications
Chooi KY
(2016)
Intimal and medial contributions to the hydraulic resistance of the arterial wall at different pressures: a combined computational and experimental study.
in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface
Christensen-Jeffries K
(2020)
Super-resolution Ultrasound Imaging
in Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology
Christensen-Jeffries K
(2017)
Microbubble Axial Localization Errors in Ultrasound Super-Resolution Imaging.
in IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control
Dewey M
(2020)
Clinical quantitative cardiac imaging for the assessment of myocardial ischaemia.
in Nature reviews. Cardiology
Leow CH
(2015)
Flow Velocity Mapping Using Contrast Enhanced High-Frame-Rate Plane Wave Ultrasound and Image Tracking: Methods and Initial in Vitro and in Vivo Evaluation.
in Ultrasound in medicine & biology
Leow CH
(2018)
Spatio-Temporal Flow and Wall Shear Stress Mapping Based on Incoherent Ensemble-Correlation of Ultrafast Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Images.
in Ultrasound in medicine & biology
Leow CH
(2015)
Microbubble Void Imaging: A Non-invasive Technique for Flow Visualisation and Quantification of Mixing in Large Vessels Using Plane Wave Ultrasound and Controlled Microbubble Contrast Agent Destruction.
in Ultrasound in medicine & biology
Li Y
(2017)
Reproducible Computer-Assisted Quantification of Myocardial Perfusion with Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound.
in Ultrasound in medicine & biology
Li Y
(2018)
Fully Automatic Myocardial Segmentation of Contrast Echocardiography Sequence Using Random Forests Guided by Shape Model.
in IEEE transactions on medical imaging
Riemer K
(2020)
Determining Haemodynamic Wall Shear Stress in the Rabbit Aorta In Vivo Using Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Image Velocimetry.
in Annals of biomedical engineering
Riemer K
(2022)
Contrast Agent-Free Assessment of Blood Flow and Wall Shear Stress in the Rabbit Aorta using Ultrasound Image Velocimetry.
in Ultrasound in medicine & biology
Stanziola A
(2016)
Ultrasound Imaging with Microbubbles [Life Sciences]
in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine
Stanziola A
(2018)
ASAP: Super-Contrast Vasculature Imaging Using Coherence Analysis and High Frame-Rate Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound.
in IEEE transactions on medical imaging
Stanziola A
(2019)
Motion Artifacts and Correction in Multipulse High-Frame Rate Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound.
in IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control
Toulemonde M
(2018)
High-Frame-Rate Contrast Echocardiography Using Diverging Waves: Initial In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation.
in IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control
Toulemonde MEG
(2018)
High Frame-Rate Contrast Echocardiography: In-Human Demonstration.
in JACC. Cardiovascular imaging
Vos HJ
(2020)
Contrast-Enhanced High-Frame-Rate Ultrasound Imaging of Flow Patterns in Cardiac Chambers and Deep Vessels.
in Ultrasound in medicine & biology
| Description | - We have developed methodologies and system for acquiring contrast enhanced ultrasound images at frame rates 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than existing technologies; - We have developed image tracking techniques for mapping arterial flow velocities - We have developed methodologies for quantifying tissue perfusion/microcirculation - We have demonstrated the applications of the above developed technologies in vivo. These technologies have great potential in improved diagnosis and patient management of a wide range of diseases including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. |
| Exploitation Route | We are currently working with clinicians to evaluate the technologies on patients. If successful the technologies could change current clinical practice. |
| Sectors | Healthcare |
| Description | This grant has led to a patent application (pengind, https://patents.google.com/patent/GB2551376A/en) and laid the fundation for a number of follow-on projects where the technologies developed in the initial project were applied to clinical applications. E.g. currently we are working with a clinical cardiologist in London to evaluate how the developed technique would be able to improve the current clinical myocardium perfusion imaging and quantification, potentially benefiting patients with coronary artery disease. We are also working with a breast oncologist to evaluate how the technology we developed contribute to early detection of cancer therapy. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Healthcare |
| Description | BHF Project Award |
| Amount | £179,389 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | PG/16/95/32350 |
| Organisation | British Heart Foundation (BHF) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2017 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Description | CRUK MDA |
| Amount | £485,213 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | C53470/A22353 |
| Organisation | Cancer Research UK |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2016 |
| End | 05/2020 |
| Description | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account Funding |
| Amount | £75,118 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R511547/1 |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2019 |
| End | 03/2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with Hammersmith |
| Organisation | Hammersmith Hospital |
| Department | Renal Unit, Hammersmith Hospital |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We have developed HFR CE technologies ready for in vivo feasibility study. |
| Collaborator Contribution | A first in human feasibility study of the technologies was co-organised by the partner and my group. |
| Impact | A joint paper in JACC CVI has been published. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Title | Acoustic sub-aperture processing for ultrasound imaging |
| Description | A method and apparatus suitable for ultrasound data processing comprises transmitting an ultrasound excitation signal from each element 12 of a transducer array 10. A response signal from each element is received, with each response signal corresponding to a respective channel 11. The response signals are then sampled at one or more time points to create a plurality of samples, each sample corresponding to a channel and a time point. The samples are subsequently divided into at least two groups. Response signals from the first group and the second group are beamformed separately. The process is then repeated over multiple data frames. The beamformed signals of each group are correlated over the multiple data frames and an image output is generated from the output of correlation module 18. Each beamformed signal may also be filtered with a high-pass filter and any beamformed signals having a low degree of correlation may be selectively attenuated. Phase components of the correlation signal can be used to infer blood dynamics information, such as direction of flow. |
| IP Reference | GB2551376 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2017 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | The method is shown to be able to significantly improve image quality and if adopted clinical could have an impact on a wide range of clinical applications and benefit the patients and clinical professionals. |
| Description | Imperial Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We have a presentation booth as part of the Imperial Festival with the theme "Seeing with sound to treat cancer and heart diseases ". The booth has been visited by >100 from the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/be-inspired/festival/ |
| Description | Presentation at Pint of Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a presentation for Pint of Science. I used the opportunity to present the science of using bubbles in medical ultrasound imaging. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://pintofscience.co.uk |