Ultrasound super-resolution imaging method

Abstract

The invention discloses an ultrasound super-resolution imaging method. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, emitting a time-space-frequency coding ultrasound radiography pulse sequence to an interested area into which ultrasound radiography microvesicle are injected;inhibiting a point spread function of a microvesicle backscattered signal; performing spatial diffraction attenuation transformation on a single-frame reconstructed radiography image of a receiving signal or centrally positioning the point spread function; converging the point spread function of a microvesicle signalin the image; and finally, performing time statistic analysis on a multi-frame converged image, enhancing a signal of a central position of the microvesicle, and inhibiting a background structure anda noise to form a super-resolution image. According to the ultrasound super-resolution imaging method disclosed by the invention, the phenomenon that a contradiction being difficult to reconcile exists between the positioning accuracy and the imaging speed of the microvesicle during ultrasound super-resolution blood flow imaging can be solved, and great improvement on the super-resolution imagingvelocity is realized.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the field of ultrasonic imaging, in particular to an ultrasonic super-resolution imaging method. Background technique [0002] In the 1990s, the concept of ultrasound contrast agent entered the clinic for the first time. By injecting ultrasound contrast agent into the blood, the echo intensity of the area with blood flow can be enhanced, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the blood flow signal can be greatly improved. With the development of technology, the second-generation contrast agents represented by Optison and Sonovue entered the clinic, giving birth to contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), which can see the perfusion of blood flow (including small blood flow and slow blood flow) Condition. However, due to the diffraction phenomenon that occurs when the size of the imaging object is smaller than the wavelength, the resolution of the imaging cannot break through the half-wavelength (clinical ultrasound is about a few hundre...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, due to the diffraction phenomenon when the size of the imaging object is smaller than the wavelength, the resolution of the imaging cannot break through the half-wavelength (clinical ultrasound is about a few hundred microns long), this phenomenon is called the diffraction limit

Although the contrast agent can greatly improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the imaging area, it still cannot overcome the diffraction limit, and it is difficult to see the topology of the overall blood flow from CEUS

[0003] However, ultrasonic super-resolution blood flow imaging based on microbubble localization has an irreconcilable contradiction between microbubble localization accuracy and imaging speed.

On the one hand, in order to ensure the accuracy of microbubble positioning, the concentration of microbubbles should not be too high, resulting in a decrease in the detection speed of microbubbles, thus limiting the imaging speed

On the other hand, increasing the concentration of microbubbles will lead to the sacrifice of localization accuracy, which will affect the quality of super-resolution imaging.

In addition, the concentration of microbubbles in blood vessels at various scales in the human body is not equal. Often, too low a concentration will make it difficult for microbubbles to perfuse into microvessels, while too high a concentration will make microbubbles no longer sparse in large blood streams.

Therefore, ultrasonic super-resolution blood flow imaging based on microbubble localization is difficult to balance accuracy and imaging speed.

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