Abstract
The assessment of microvascular perfusion is essential for the diagnosis of a specific muscle disease. In comparison with the current available medical modalities, the contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging is the simplest and fastest means for probing the tissue perfusion. Specifically, the perfusion parameters estimated from the ultrasound time-intensity curve (TIC) and statistics-based time–Nakagami parameter curve (TNC) approaches were found able to quantify the perfusion. However, due to insufficient tolerance on tissue clutters and subresolvable effects, these approaches remain short of reproducibility and robustness. Consequently, the window-modulated compounding (WMC) Nakagami parameter ratio imaging was proposed to alleviate these effects, by taking the ratio of WMC Nakagami parameters corresponding to the incidence of two different acoustic pressures from an employed transducer. The time–Nakagami parameter ratio curve (TNRC) approach was also developed to estimate perfusion parameters. Measurements for the assessment of muscle perfusion were performed from the flow phantom and animal subjects administrated with a bolus of ultrasound contrast agents. The TNRC approach demonstrated better sensitivity and tolerance of tissue clutters than those of TIC and TNC. The fusion image with the WMC Nakagami parameter ratio and B-mode images indicated that both the tissue structures and perfusion properties of ultrasound contrast agents may be better discerned.
Highlights
As the largest of the soft tissues, muscle is mainly functioning for the protection and composition of almost all essential organs in the human body
The mean signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) corresponding to both incident acoustic pressures are higher than 22 dB
The backscattered power of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) is highly affected by the incidence of acoustic pressure, as can be seen in Figure 8a; the mcom, on the other hand, is less sensitive to that of the employed acoustic pressure. These results suggest that the Nakagami parameter is less sensitive to the backscattered power in response to different incident acoustic pressures, and that the blood perfusion in biological tissues may be better estimated by mrcom, to reduce the influence of tissue clutters in biological tissues
Summary
As the largest of the soft tissues, muscle is mainly functioning for the protection and composition of almost all essential organs in the human body. Only a few muscle symptoms may be diagnosed with a specific myopathy that is predominantly associated with proximal muscle weakness [2,3]. Several medical imaging modalities have been developed that are capable of noninvasively detecting the compositions and variations of muscles, including the tissue edema, fatty, and atrophic changes [3,4]. It remains difficult for the majority of medical imaging modalities to precisely diagnose a specific muscular disease, since the morphological changes of tissues are usually non-disease-specific.
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