Data augmentation of ultrasound imaging for non-invasive white blood cell in vitro peritoneal dialysis

The limited amount of data in the healthcare domain and the necessity of training samples for increased performance of deep learning models is a recurrent challenge,especially in medical imaging.Newborn Solutions aims to enhance its non-invasive white blood cell counting device,Neosonics,by creating synthetic in vitro ultrasound images to facilitate a more efficient image generation process.This study addresses the data scarcity issue by designing and evaluating a continuous scalar conditional Generative Adversarial Network(GAN)to augment in vitro peritoneal dialysis ultrasound images,increasing both the volume and variability of training samples.The developed GAN architecture incorporates novel design features:varying kernel sizes in the generator’s transposed convolutional layers and a latent intermediate space,projecting noise and condition values for enhanced image resolution and specificity.The experimental results show that the GAN successfully generated diverse images of high visual quality,closely resembling real ultrasound samples.While visual results were promising,the use of GAN-based data augmentation did not consistently improve the performance of an image regressor in distinguishing features specific to varied white blood cell concentrations.Ultimately,while this continuous scalar conditional GAN model made strides in generating realistic images,further work is needed to achieve consistent gains in regression tasks,aiming for robust model generalization.

The Application Value of Ultrasound Imaging in the Differential Diagnosis of Benign and Malignant Breast Nodules of BI-RADS 3 and Above

Objective:To explore the diagnostic value of ultrasound imaging for breast nodules of breast imaging-reporting and data system(BI-RADS)category 3 and above.Methods:From June 2021 to July 2022,163 patients with breast nodules of BI-RADS 3 or above were selected as the research subjects.After pathological diagnosis,24 cases were malignant breast nodules of BI-RADS 3 or above,while 139 cases were benign breast nodules of BI-RADS 3 or above.The diagnosis rate of malignant and benign breast nodules of BI-RADS 3 or above,including 95%CI,was observed and analyzed.Results:The malignant and benign detection rates of conventional ultrasound were 88.63%and 75.00%,respectively,and the malignant and benign detection rates of ultrasound imaging were 93.18%and 87.50%,respectively,with 95%CIs greater than 0.7.Conclusion:Ultrasound imaging can help improve the diagnostic accuracy of benign and malignant breast nodules of BI-RADS 3 and above and reduce the misdiagnosis rate.

A Novel Approach to Breast Tumor Detection: Enhanced Speckle Reduction and Hybrid Classification in Ultrasound Imaging

Breast cancer detection heavily relies on medical imaging, particularly ultrasound, for early diagnosis and effectivetreatment. This research addresses the challenges associated with computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of breastcancer fromultrasound images. The primary challenge is accurately distinguishing between malignant and benigntumors, complicated by factors such as speckle noise, variable image quality, and the need for precise segmentationand classification. The main objective of the research paper is to develop an advanced methodology for breastultrasound image classification, focusing on speckle noise reduction, precise segmentation, feature extraction, andmachine learning-based classification. A unique approach is introduced that combines Enhanced Speckle ReducedAnisotropic Diffusion (SRAD) filters for speckle noise reduction, U-NET-based segmentation, Genetic Algorithm(GA)-based feature selection, and Random Forest and Bagging Tree classifiers, resulting in a novel and efficientmodel. To test and validate the hybrid model, rigorous experimentations were performed and results state thatthe proposed hybrid model achieved accuracy rate of 99.9%, outperforming other existing techniques, and alsosignificantly reducing computational time. This enhanced accuracy, along with improved sensitivity and specificity,makes the proposed hybrid model a valuable addition to CAD systems in breast cancer diagnosis, ultimatelyenhancing diagnostic accuracy in clinical applications.

Ultrasound Imaging of Pipeline Crack Based on Composite Transducer Array

Cracks, especially small cracks are di cult to be detected in oil and gas transportation pipelines buried underground or covered with layers of material by using the traditional ultrasonic inspection techniques. Therefore, a new com?posite ultrasonic transducer array with three acoustic beam incidence modes is developed. The space model of the array is also established to obtain the defect reflection point location. And the crack ultrasound image is thus formed through a series of small cubical elements expanded around the point locations by using the projection of binariza?tion values extracted from the received ultrasonic echo signals. Laboratory experiments are performed on a pipeline sample with di erent types of cracks to verify the e ectiveness and performance of the proposed technique. From the image, the presence of small cracks can be clearly observed, in addition to the sizes and orientations of the cracks. The proposed technique can not only inspect common flaws, but also detect cracks with various orientations, which is helpful for defect evaluation in pipeline testing.

Preprocedure ultrasound imaging combined with palpation technique in epidural labor analgesia

BACKGROUND For parturients with paroxysmal uterine contraction pain,rapid analgesia is needed.We used preprocedure ultrasound imaging combined with the palpation technique in epidural analgesia for labor,and evaluated the usefulness of this technique in epidural labor analgesia.AIM To evaluate the usefulness of preprocedure ultrasound imaging in epidural analgesia for labor.METHODS In this prospective randomized observational study,72 parturients were assigned to two groups(combined or palpation group).The target interspace of all parturients was first identified by the palpation technique.Then in the combined group,preprocedure ultrasound imaging was used before epidural puncture.In the palpation group,only the traditional anatomical landmarks technique(palpation technique)was performed.The primary outcome was total duration of the epidural procedure(for the ultrasound group,the duration of the preprocedure ultrasound imaging was included).The secondary outcomes were the number of skin punctures,the success rate at first needle pass,the number of needle passes,the depth from the skin to epidural space,and the complications of the procedure.RESULTS Total duration of the epidural procedure was similar between the two groups(406.5±92.15 s in the combined group and 380.03±128.2 s in the palpation group;P=0.318).A significant improvement was demonstrated for epidural puncture and catheterization in the combined group.The number of needle passes was 1.14 in the combined group and 1.72 in the palpation group(P=0.001).The number of skin puncture sites was 1.20 in the combined group and 1.25 in the palpation group(P=0.398).The success rate at first needle pass was 88.89%in the combined group and 66.67%in the palpation group(P=0.045).CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that the total duration of epidural procedures with preprocedure ultrasound imaging combined with the palpation technique was not longer than the traditional anatomical landmarks technique,which were performed by six experienced anesthesiologists in parturients with normal weights undergoing labor analgesia.

Contrast enhancement of medical ultrasound imaging with reversal phase-inversion pulse technology

A new ultrasound contrast imaging technique was proposed for eliminating the harmonic components from the emission signal transmitted by the broadband ultrasonic system.Reversal phase-inversion pulse was used for the first time to separate the contrast harmonics from the harmonics in the emission signal to improve the detection of contrast micro-bubbles.Based on the nonlinear acoustic theory of finite-amplitude effects and the associated distortion of the propagating wave,the Bessel-Fubini series model was applied to describe the nonlinear propagation effects of the reversal phase-inversion pulse,and the Church's equation for zero-thickness encapsulation model was used to produce the scattering-pulse of the bubble.For harmonic imaging,the experiment was performed using a 64-element linear array,which was simulated by Field II.The results show that the harmonic components from the emission signal can be completely cancelled,and the harmonics generated by the nonlinear propagation of the wave through the tissue,can be reduced by 15-30 dB.Compared with the short pulse,the reversal phase-inversion pulse can improve the contrast and definition of the harmonic image significantly.

Ultrasound imaging of chitosan nerve conduits that bridge sciatic nerve defects in rats

The repair of peripheral nerve injuries with autologous nerve remains the gold standard （Wang et al., 2005; Yao et al., 2010; Deal et al., 2012; Kriebel et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2014; Tamaki et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2014; Zhu and Lou, 2014）. With advances in tissue engineering and biomaterials, tissue-engineered nerve conduits with various biomaterials and structures, such as collagen and chitosan nerve conduits, have already been used in the clinic as alternatives to autologous nerve in the repair of peripheral nerve injury （Wang et al., 2012; Svizenska et al., 2013; Eppenberger et al., 2014; Gu et al., 2014; Koudehi et al., 2014; MoyaDiaz et al., 2014; Novajra et al., 2014; Okamoto et al., 2014; Shea et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2014; Tamaki et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2014）. Therefore, new simple and effective methods

The Diagnosis of Diffuse Goitre by Ultrasound Imaging in Children

In order to find an easy and accurate procedure for diagnosis of diffuse goitre in children, we examined 50 patients with diffuse goitre using fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology, thyroid antibody detection, thyroid hormone analysis and ultrasound imaging. In the meantime, 109 healthy children (control) were examined by ultrasound imaging. The results showed that thyroid imaging in health children was a smooth echo pattern with stronger homogenous echogram than surrounding muscle tissues. The patients with diffuse goitre showed an normally enlarged thyroid volume. In 22 (84. 6 %) of 26 children With chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, a varied patch hypoechogenicity was found, of whom 18 (81. 8 % ) had positive results of antibody testing. On the contrary, echo-pattern was normal in 17 (70. 8 %) of 24 patients with diffuse thyroid proliferation and only the remainder (7/24, 29. 1% ) had abnormal echo-pattern as well as elevated auto-antibody titers, of whom 2 were confirmed as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis by a repeat fine needle aspiration biopsy 1 year later. By using combined ultrasound imaging and antibody determination, 92 % of the cases with chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis could be diagnosed. Our study suggests that ultrasonic imaging is an easy, non-invasive, reproducible and effective procedure in the differen,tial diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis in children.

Optically-excited simultaneous photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging based on aflexible gold-PDMS film

We constructed a flexible gold-polydimethylsiloxane(gold-PDMS)nanocomposites film with controllable thickness and light transmittance,to realize optically-excited simultaneous photo-acoustic(PA)and ultrasound(US)imaging under a single laser pulse irradiation.Benefiting from the excellent thermoelastic properties,the gold-PDMS film absorbs part of the incident laser energy and produces a high-intensity US,which is used to realize US imaging.Meanwhile,the partly transmitted light is used to excite samples for PA imaging.By controlling the thickness of the gold-PDMS,we can control the center frequency in the US imaging.We experimentally analyzed the frequency of the produced US signal by the gold-PDMSfilm and compared it with the finite element analysis(FEA)method,where the experiments agree with the FEA results.This method is demonstrated by the experiments on phantoms and a mouse model.Our work provides a cost-effective methodology for simultaneous PA and US imaging.

A Flexible and High Speed Digital Scan Converter for High Frequency Ultrasound Imaging

This paper presents a flexible and high speed digital scan converter (DSC) with the ability to handle high frequency ultrasound imaging in real-time. The characteristics in imaging system such as focus length of transducer, the swing radius and sampling length etc. could be changed easily in compliance with the researcher's application based on this flexible digital scan converter. Linear interpolation is employed to achieve the coordinate transformations algorithm. Custom-built software is programmed to preliminarily handle the algorithm according to different ultrasound imaging applications. High performance FPGA will implement high speed interpolation calculation based on the preliminary data which are stored in the DDR2 SDRAM from the software. 64 bit 66 MHz PCI is employed to accomplish high speed data transmission. Experiment has shown that more than 500 frame rate could be achieved based on this high speed digital scan converter. The designed flexible and high speed digital scan converter could be used in current FPGA based high frequency ultrasound imaging system.

Twins-like nanodrugs synchronously transport in blood and coalesce inside tumors for sensitive ultrasound imaging and triggerable penetrative drug delivery

Nanodrugs capable of aggregating in the tumor microenvironment(TME)have demonstrated great efficiency in improving the therapeutic outcome.Among vari-ous approaches,the strategy utilizing electrostatic interaction as a driving force to achieve intratumor aggregation of nanodrugs has attracted great attention.However,the great difference between the two nanodrugs with varied physicochemical prop-erties makes their synchronous transport in blood circulation and equal-opportunity tumor uptake impossible,which significantly detracts from the beneficial effects of nanodrug aggregation inside tumors.We herein propose a new strategy to construct a pair of extremely similar nanodrugs,referred to as“twins-like nanodrugs(TLNs)”,which have identical physicochemical properties including the same morphology,size,and electroneutrality to render them the same blood circulation time and tumor entrance.The 1:1 mixture of TLNs(TLNs-Mix)intravenously injected into a mouse model efficiently accumulates in tumor sites and then transfers to oppositely charged nanodrugs for electrostatic interaction-driven coalescence via responding to matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2)enriched in tumor.In addition to enhanced tumor retention,the thus-formed micron-sized aggregates show high echo intensity essen-tial for ultrasound imaging as well as ultrasound-triggered penetrative drug delivery.Owing to their distinctive features,the TLNs-Mix carrying sonosensitizer,immune adjuvant,and ultrasound contrast agent exert potent sonodynamic immunotherapy against hypovascular hepatoma,demonstrating their great potential in treating solid malignancies.

Calcium carbonate-methylene blue nanohybrids for photodynamic therapy and ultrasound imaging

Photodynamic therapy plays an important role in cancer treatment.In this work,methylene blue(MB)-embedded calcium carbonate nanorods(CaCO_3-MB NRs)have been synthesized for p H-responsive photodynamic therapy and ultrasound imaging.The morphology of CaCO_3-MB NRs can be controlled by modulating the concentration of Na_2CO_3 aqueous solution.The generation of effective reactive oxygen species(ROS)were confirmed by 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran(DPBF)probe.Both photodynamic therapy performance and echogenic performance of CaCO_3-MB NRs were investigated to confirm the feasibility of CaCO_3-MB nanohybrids for ultrasound image-guided photodynamic therapy.

An efficient quadrature demodulator for medical ultrasound imaging

Quadrature demodulation is used in medical ultrasound imaging to derive the envelope and instantaneous phase of the received radio-frequency(RF) signal.In quadrature demodulation,RF signal is multiplied with the sine and cosine wave reference signal and then low-pass filtered to produce the base-band complex signal,which has high computational complexity.In this paper,we propose an efficient quadrature demodulation method for B-mode and color flow imaging,in which the RF signal is demodulated by a pair of finite impulse response filters without mixing with the reference signal,to reduce the computational complexity.The proposed method was evaluated with simulation and in vivo experiments.From the simulation results,the proposed quadrature demodulation method produced similar normalized residual sum of squares(NRSS) and velocity profile compared with the conventional quadrature demodulation method.In the in vivo color flow imaging experiments,the time of the demodulation process was 5.66 ms and 3.36 ms,for the conventional method and the proposed method,respectively.These results indicated that the proposed method can maintain the performance of quadrature demodulation while reducing computational complexity.

INTRAVASCULAR ULTRASOUND IMAGING OF ANGIOGRAPHICALLY "SILENT" LEFT MAIN CORONARY ARTERY ATHEROSCLEROSIS

Patients with left main coronary artery (LMCA) atherosclerosis have a poor prognosis compared with lesions in the other coronaries. Because of the methodological problems. LMCA atherosclerotic lesions are not frequently detected by coronary angiography. The purpose of the study was to reveal the existence of LMCA disease in patients with normal coronary arteries by using intravascular ultrasound imaging. Ninety-seven patients with angiographically normal coronary arteries were examined with a 3.5 F or 4.8 F. 20 MHz intravascular ultrasound catheter. The vessel, lumen and plaque areas were determined and percent area and diameter stenosis were calculated. Plaque formation with or without calcific deposits identified by ultrasound accoustic shadowing were regarded as signs of atherosclerosis.

HPDA/Zn as a CREB Inhibitor for Ultrasound imaging and Stabilization of Atherosclerosis Plaque+

Thrombosis,secondary to rupture of unstable plaque,is a fatal risk factor for myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke.At present,more novel methods are needed for the diagnosis and treatment of vulnerable plaque.Here,we report a hollow polydopamine/Zn(HPDA/Zn)ultrasound contrast agent.Through western-blot,Elisa,and other experiments,we found that in addition to having a good contrast-enhancement capability in ultrasound imaging in vitro and in vivo,HPDA/Zn also has the effect of reducing the expres-sion of CREB.CREB protein and its downstream-regulated proteins and factors are closely related to the stability of plaque.HPDA/Zn has the effect of reducing the expression of CREB protein,which leads to the decrease of expression of MMP-9,the regulatory pro-tein downstream of the CREB protein.In addition,it also reduces the secretion of inflammatory factors hs-CRP and IL-17A.Thus,HPDA/Zn can stabilize plaque by inhibiting CREB and reducing plaque vulnerable markers and inflammatory factors.In a word,HPDA/Zn is a kind of ultrasound contrast agent,which can stabilize plaques by inhibiting CREB protein.

The application of compressed sensing in synthetic transmit aperture medical ultrasound imaging

In synthetic transmit aperture medical ultrasound imaging field,a compressed sensing ultrasound imaging method based on the sparsity in frequency domain is presented in order to reduce huge amount of data and large numbers of receiving channels.First,the sparsity in frequency domain is verified.Then the echo signal is compressively sampled in time-spatial domain based on compressed sensing and the echo signal is reconstructed by solving an optimization problem.Finally the image is made by using the synthetic transmit aperture approach.The experiments based on point target and fetus target are used to verify the proposed method.The MSE,resolution and image quality of reconstructed image and those of original image are compared and analyzed.The results show that only 30%amount of data and 50%of receiving channels were used to implement ultrasound imaging without reducing the quality of image in experiment.The amount of data and the complexity of system are reduced greatly by the proposed method based on compressed sensing.

Artificial intelligence-based ultrasound imaging technologies for hepatic diseases

Ultrasound(US)imaging is a non-invasive,real-time,economical,and convenient imaging modality that has been widely used in diagnosing and treating hepatic diseases.Artificial intelligence(AI)technology can predict or make decisions based on the experience of clinical experts and knowledge obtained from training data.This technology can help clinicians improve the detection efficiency and evaluate hepatic diseases,promote clinical treatment of the liver,and predict the response of the liver after treatment.This review summarizes the current rapid development of US technology and related AI methods in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatic diseases.Covered topics include steatosis grading,fibrosis staging,detection of focal liver lesions,US image segmentation,multimodal image registration,and other applications.At present,the field of AI in US imaging is still in its early stages.With the future progress of AI technology,AI-based US imaging can further improve diagnosis,reduce medical costs,and optimize US-based clinical workflow.This technology has broad prospects for application to hepatic diseases.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORONARY ANGIOSCOPIC AND INTRAVASCULAR ULTRASOUND IMAGING AND RESTENOSIS

In order to investigate the relationship between restenosis and the morphology detected by coronary angioscopy (CASC) and introvascular ultrasound imaging (IVUS), 17 patients were detected by CASC and IVUS immediately and 3 months after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioscopy (PTCA), The results showed that the dilation index by IVUS (DIu) was significantly lower in restenosis patients than in non-restenosis patients (0.42 +/- 0.08 versus 0.78 +/- 0.16, P < 0.01) and that the elastic recoil (ER) was higher in restenosis patients than in non-restenosis patients (4.51 +/- 1.42 mm(2) versus 1.63 +/- 1.20 mm(2), P < 0.01), and that the elastic recoil rate (ERR) was also higher in restenosis patients than in non-restenosis patients (57.3 +/- 8.07% versus 21.80 +/- 16.84% P < 0.01), and that coronary dissection, atheromatous plaque and calcification as well as the colour of inner coronary artery had no relation with chronic restenosis. In conclusion, the elastic recoil is one of the important factors of chronic restenosis after PTCA.

Recent advances in applications of multimodal ultrasound-guided photoacoustic imaging technology

Photoacoustic imaging(PAI)is often performed simultaneously with ultrasound imaging and can provide functional and cellular information regarding the tissues in the anatomical markers of the imaging.This paper describes in detail the basic principles of photoacoustic/ultrasound(PA/US)imaging and its application in recent years.It includes near-infrared-region PA,photothermal,photodynamic,and multimode imaging techniques.Particular attention is given to the relationship between PAI and ultrasonic imaging;the latest high-frequency PA/US imaging of small animals,which involves not only B-mode,but also color Doppler mode,power Doppler mode,and nonlinear imaging mode;the ultrasonic model combined with PAI,including the formation of multimodal imaging;the preclinical imaging methods;and the most effective detection methods for clinical research for the future.

Microbubble ultrasound contrast agent with three esters and carboxylic methyl cellulose as main shell materials: Its preparation and imaging evaluation

Objective: To study on the preparation process of a new surfactant-based microbubble ultrasound contrast agent and to evaluate its contrast effects in vivo. Methods: Microbubble ultrasound contrast agent with three ester surfactants and other additives as its shell materials was prepared by sonication. Sulfur hexafluoride was adopted as the inner gas of the microbubbles. New methods through the combination of optical microscope and some softwares were used to measure the size distribution and the concentration of the microbubbles. Some parameters such as the pH value of the phosphate buffer, quantity of the carboxylic methyl cellulose in the shell materials, selection of the ultrasound power and process time, were studied. Six hybirded dogs were used to verify the in vivo contrast imaging of the contrast agent using second harmonic power Doppler modality. Safety and persistent time of the agent inner animal body were also investigated. Results: Ultrasound contrast agent prepared in the experiment had an average microbubble diameter of 3.95 microns with concentration of 3.6×109 microbubbles per millilitre. Carboxylic methyl cellulose was found as an important shell material which had obviously effect on the microbubble stability and production even with a little quantity. The buffer pH value also had a key role on the microbubble formation and the final production. When the buffer pH value reached 7.4, there was no microbubble produced. Under the approximate microbubble production, process time could be shorten with the increasing ultrasound power. The obvious ultrasound contrast imaging effects were detected in the dog's heart chamber and liver as well as kidney using only one millilitre agent when diluted. The agent was found safe to the dogs. At the same time, persistent time of the agent was found over 20 min in the dog's body. Conclusion: The new ultrasound contrast agent prepared in the experiment has high microbubble production and concentration, narrow microbubble size distribution ranging in several microns, well stability, little dosage needed in the contrast, well safety to the dogs and long persistent time, obvious contrast imaging effect in the dog's heart chamber, kidney and liver. These experiment data indicate that the new ultrasound contrast agent with three ester surfactants and carboxylic methyl cellulose as its main shell materials can be further developed for clinical purposes.