Acoustic Angiography Using Dual-Frequency and Ultrawideband CMUT Arrays

使用双频和超宽带 CMUT 阵列的声学血管造影

• 批准号: 9899252
• 负责人: Paul A Dayton
• 金额: $ 45.18万
• 依托单位: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY RALEIGH
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-01 至 2022-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9899252
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Acoustics; Angiography; Artificial Implants; Behavior; Blood Vessel Tissue; Blood Vessels; Breast; Chest wall structure; Clinical; Collaborations; Contrast Media; Data; Detection; Development; Devices; Dimensions; Disease; Elements; Fingerprint; Fostering; Frequencies; Image; Imaging Techniques; In Vitro; Lesion; Malignant - descriptor; Malignant Neoplasms; Mammary Ultrasonography; Mammography; Measurement; Mechanics; Methods; Microbubbles; Morphologic artifacts; Noise; Pattern; Pensions; Performance; Physiologic pulse; Population; Problem Solving; Process; Production; Property; Prostate; Public Health; Research; Research Personnel; Resolution; Scanning; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal Transduction; Specificity; Structure; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Thyroid Gland; Tissues; Transducers; Ultrasonic Transducer; Ultrasonography; Validation; Visualization; Woman; Work; angiogenesis; animal imaging; base; breast lesion; breast malignancies; cancer biomarkers; cancer imaging; clinical translation; contrast enhanced; contrast imaging; cost; design; electric impedance; experience; high resolution imaging; imaging approach; improved; in vivo; millimeter; novel; operation; pre-clinical; preclinical study; pressure; prototype; standard of care; technology validation; tool; transmission process; tumor; young woman

ABSTRACT Over the past few years, progress in the development of ultrawideband transmit-receive systems for ultrasound imaging has enabled new imaging paradigms. One such application, which our group has developed is ‘acoustic angiography’, a superharmonic imaging technique which is based on the fact that when excited with a moderate acoustic pressure near their resonance (2-4 MHz; around MI of 0.5-0.7) ultrasound contrast agents produce broadband content which extends well past 15 MHz. The result is that signals from ultrasound contrast agents can be separated from those from tissue with high efficacy, and the resulting images benefit from the high resolution received data. This new imaging technique has enabled the acquisition of images of microvascular structure with unprecedented resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, and created a paradigm shift in how ultrasound might be used pre-clinically and clinically in assessing tumor associated angiogenesis. For clinical translation, we are targeting to improve the specificity of ultrasound to breast malignancies, and furthermore to improve sensitivity to very small lesions using acoustic angiography. In prior studies, our work has shown the use of acoustic angiography to detect micro-tumors with very high sensitivity and specificity based on their microvascular angiogenic signature, rather than relying on difference in tissue properties of the tumor mass itself. Although the presence of this high-frequency energy from microbubbles has been known about for over a decade, it has not been taken advantage of until our recent work because it requires transducers with an extraordinarily wide bandwidth not currently available. Although our prior studies have shown great promise using multi-element multi-frequency piezoelectric transducers, a more natural match for this moderate-pressure high-bandwidth application is the capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT). The use of CMUTs provides benefits over piezoelectrics such as the ability to perform with a very wide bandwidth as well as the possibility of multi-frequency configurations through their micromachined production process. In our preliminary studies, we have experimentally shown the feasibility of dual-frequency CMUTs for transmitting low frequency excitation and receive high frequency harmonics. We have also demonstrated novel techniques for eliminating the natural harmonic content produced by CMUT transducers, a limitation which was previously thought to hamper the performance of these devices for nonlinear microbubble imaging. In this project, a team of investigators with extensive experience in contrast ultrasound imaging and acoustic angiography (Dayton) and CMUT transducer design and fabrication (Oralkan) continue to work together to achieve new performance levels in CMUT transducers for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, with the intent of developing a new cancer imaging approach using CMUT arrays and microbubble contrast agents.

抽象的 在过去的几年中，超声波超速发射系统的开发进展 成像已实现了新的成像范例。我们小组已开发的一种这样的应用程序是 “声学血管造影”，这是一种超级谐波成像技术，基于以下事实：当 它们的共振（2-4 MHz；约为0.5-0.7）的超声对比剂附近的中等声压（2-4 MHz； 产生的宽带含量延伸了15 MHz。结果是来自超声的信号 对比剂可以以高效率与组织分开，并得益于产生的图像 从高分辨率收到的数据中。这种新的成像技术使您能够获取 微血管结构具有前所未有的分辨率和信噪比，并创建了范式移动 在如何在评估肿瘤相关的血管生成的情况下进行超声检查。为了 临床翻译，我们的目标是提高超声对乳房恶性肿的特异性，以及 此外，使用声学血管造影仪提高对非常小病变的敏感性。在先前的研究中，我们的工作 已经表明使用声血管造影来检测具有非常高灵敏度和特异性的微肿瘤 基于它们的微血管血管生成特征，而不是依赖于组织特性的差异 肿瘤质量本身。尽管已知来自微泡中这种高频能量的存在已知 大约十多年来，直到我们最近的工作都没有利用它，因为它需要 目前尚不可用的带宽非常宽的传感器。尽管我们先前的研究有 使用多元素多频线压电传感器显示出巨大的希望，这是更自然的匹配 这种中等压力的高带宽应用是电容性微机械超声传感器 （cmut）。 CMUTS的使用提供了比压电的好处 宽带宽度以及通过其微机械进行多频配置的可能性 生产过程。在我们的初步研究中，我们通过实验表明了双频性的可行性 用于传输低频兴奋并接收高频谐波的CMUTS。我们也有 展示了消除CMUT传感器产生的自然谐波含量的新技术 以前认为限制了这些设备的非线性微气泡的性能 成像。在这个项目中，一个在对比超声成像方面拥有丰富经验的调查员团队 声学血管造影（代顿）和CMUT换能器设计与制造（Oralkan）继续起作用 共同在CMUT传感器中达到新的性能水平，以进行对比增强超声成像， 目的是使用CMUT阵列和微泡对比度开发一种新的癌症成像方法 代理商。