An Experimental Protocol for Assessing the Performance of New Ultrasound Probes Based on CMUT Technology in Application to Brain Imaging
| Autor: | Fabio Quaglia, Alessandro Stuart Savoia, Giulia Matrone, Gloria Castellazzi, Marco Piastra, Alessandro Ramalli, Patrizia Morbini |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Matrone, Giulia, Ramalli, Alessandro, Savoia, Alessandro Stuart, Quaglia, Fabio, Castellazzi, Gloria, Morbini, Patrizia, Piastra, Marco |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
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medicine.medical_specialty Open platform Motion tracking system Computer science Immunology and Microbiology (all) General Chemical Engineering Image registration Neuroimaging Bioengineering 02 engineering and technology General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering medicine Animals Humans Computer vision Medical physics Chemical Engineering (all) Instrumentation (computer programming) Ultrasonography Protocol (science) Neuroscience (all) Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology (all) 3D ultrasound imaging CMUT General Immunology and Microbiology business.industry General Neuroscience Brain 020206 networking & telecommunications Bovine Magnetic Resonance Imaging Issue 127 Ultrasonic sensor Cattle Artificial intelligence business MRI |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Visualized Experiments. |
| ISSN: | 1940-087X |
| DOI: | 10.3791/55798-v |
| Popis: | The possibility to perform an early and repeatable assessment of imaging performance is fundamental in the design and development process of new ultrasound (US) probes. Particularly, a more realistic analysis with application-specific imaging targets can be extremely valuable to assess the expected performance of US probes in their potential clinical field of application. The experimental protocol presented in this work was purposely designed to provide an application-specific assessment procedure for newly-developed US probe prototypes based on Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) technology in relation to brain imaging. The protocol combines the use of a bovine brain fixed in formalin as the imaging target, which ensures both realism and repeatability of the described procedures, and of neuronavigation techniques borrowed from neurosurgery. The US probe is in fact connected to a motion tracking system which acquires position data and enables the superposition of US images to reference Magnetic Resonance (MR) images of the brain. This provides a means for human experts to perform a visual qualitative assessment of the US probe imaging performance and to compare acquisitions made with different probes. Moreover, the protocol relies on the use of a complete and open research and development system for US image acquisition, i.e. the Ultrasound Advanced Open Platform (ULA-OP) scanner. The manuscript describes in detail the instruments and procedures involved in the protocol, in particular for the calibration, image acquisition and registration of US and MR images. The obtained results prove the effectiveness of the overall protocol presented, which is entirely open (within the limits of the instrumentation involved), repeatable, and covers the entire set of acquisition and processing activities for US images. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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