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Choi H. Design of Preamplifier for Ultrasound Transducers. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2024; 24:786. [PMID: 38339502 PMCID: PMC10856992 DOI: 10.3390/s24030786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Revised: 12/31/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024]
Abstract
In diagnostic ultrasound imaging applications, preamplifiers are used as first-stage analog front-end amplifiers for ultrasound transducers because they can amplify weak acoustic signals generated directly by ultrasound transducers. For emerging diagnostic ultrasound imaging applications, different types of preamplifiers with specific design parameters and circuit topologies have been developed, depending on the types of the ultrasound transducer. In particular, the design parameters of the preamplifier, such as the gain, bandwidth, input- or output-referred noise components, and power consumption, have a tradeoff relationship. Guidelines on the detailed design concept, design parameters, and specific circuit design techniques of the preamplifier used for ultrasound transducers are outlined in this paper, aiming to help circuit designers and academic researchers optimize the performance of ultrasound transducers used in the diagnostic ultrasound imaging applications for research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hojong Choi
- Department of Electronic Engineering, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnam-daero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam 13120, Republic of Korea
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Chen Y, Zhuang Z, Luo J, Luo X. Doppler and Pair-Wise Optical Flow Constrained 3D Motion Compensation for 3D Ultrasound Imaging. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING : A PUBLICATION OF THE IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING SOCIETY 2023; 32:4501-4516. [PMID: 37540607 DOI: 10.1109/tip.2023.3300591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/06/2023]
Abstract
Volumetric (3D) ultrasound imaging using a 2D matrix array probe is increasingly developed for various clinical procedures. However, 3D ultrasound imaging suffers from motion artifacts due to tissue motions and a relatively low frame rate. Current Doppler-based motion compensation (MoCo) methods only allow 1D compensation in the in-range dimension. In this work, we propose a new 3D-MoCo framework that combines 3D velocity field estimation and a two-step compensation strategy for 3D diverging wave compounding imaging. Specifically, our framework explores two constraints of a round-trip scan sequence of 3D diverging waves, i.e., Doppler and pair-wise optical flow, to formulate the estimation of the 3D velocity fields as a global optimization problem, which is further regularized by the divergence-free and first-order smoothness. The two-step compensation strategy is to first compensate for the 1D displacements in the in-range dimension and then the 2D displacements in the two mutually orthogonal cross-range dimensions. Systematical in-silico experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness of our proposed 3D-MoCo method. The results demonstrate that our 3D-MoCo method achieves higher image contrast, higher structural similarity, and better speckle patterns than the corresponding 1D-MoCo method. Particularly, the 2D cross-range compensation is effective for fully recovering image quality.
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Margolis R, Basavarajappa L, Li J, Obaid G, Hoyt K. Image-guided focused ultrasound-mediated molecular delivery to breast cancer in an animal model. Phys Med Biol 2023; 68:10.1088/1361-6560/ace23d. [PMID: 37369225 PMCID: PMC10439523 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ace23d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023]
Abstract
Tumors become inoperable due to their size or location, making neoadjuvant chemotherapy the primary treatment. However, target tissue accumulation of anticancer agents is limited by the physical barriers of the tumor microenvironment. Low-intensity focused ultrasound (FUS) in combination with microbubble (MB) contrast agents can increase microvascular permeability and improve drug delivery to the target tissue after systemic administration. The goal of this research was to investigate image-guided FUS-mediated molecular delivery in volume space. Three-dimensional (3-D) FUS therapy functionality was implemented on a programmable ultrasound scanner (Vantage 256, Verasonics Inc.) equipped with a linear array for image guidance and a 128-element therapy transducer (HIFUPlex-06, Sonic Concepts). FUS treatment was performed on breast cancer-bearing female mice (N= 25). Animals were randomly divided into three groups, namely, 3-D FUS therapy, two-dimensional (2-D) FUS therapy, or sham (control) therapy. Immediately prior to the application of FUS therapy, animals received a slow bolus injection of MBs (Definity, Lantheus Medical Imaging Inc.) and near-infrared dye (IR-780, surrogate drug) for optical reporting and quantification of molecular delivery. Dye accumulation was monitored viain vivooptical imaging at 0, 1, 24, and 48 h (Pearl Trilogy, LI-COR). Following the 48 h time point, animals were humanely euthanized and tumors excised forex vivoanalyzes. Optical imaging results revealed that 3-D FUS therapy improved delivery of the IR-780 dye by 66.4% and 168.1% at 48 h compared to 2-D FUS (p= 0.18) and sham (p= 0.047) therapeutic strategies, respectively.Ex vivoanalysis revealed similar trends. Overall, 3-D FUS therapy can improve accumulation of a surrogate drug throughout the entire target tumor burden after systemic administration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan Margolis
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Lokesh Basavarajappa
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Junjie Li
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Girgis Obaid
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
| | - Kenneth Hoyt
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States of America
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Moody CT, Durham PG, Dayton PA, Brudno Y. Loading Intracranial Drug-Eluting Reservoirs Across the Blood-Brain Barrier With Focused Ultrasound. ULTRASOUND IN MEDICINE & BIOLOGY 2023; 49:1679-1685. [PMID: 37120330 PMCID: PMC10192093 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2023.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Revised: 03/12/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Efficient, sustained and long-term delivery of therapeutics to the brain remains an important challenge to treatment of diseases such as brain cancer, stroke and neurodegenerative disease. Focused ultrasound can assist movement of drugs into the brain, but frequent and long-term use has remained impractical. Single-use intracranial drug-eluting depots show promise but are limited for the treatment of chronic diseases as they cannot be refilled non-invasively. Refillable drug-eluting depots could serve as a long-term solution, but refilling is hindered by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which prevents drug refills from accessing the brain. In this article, we describe how focused ultrasound enables non-invasive loading of intracranial drug depots in mice. METHODS Female CD-1 mice (n = 6) were intracranially injected with click-reactive and fluorescent molecules that are capable of anchoring in the brain. After healing, animals were treated with high-intensity focused ultrasound and microbubbles to temporarily increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and deliver dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO)-Cy7. The mice were perfused, and the brains were imaged via ex vivo fluorescence imaging. RESULTS Fluorescence imaging indicated small molecule refills are captured by intracranial depots as long as 4 wk after administration and are retained for up to 4 wk based on fluorescence imaging. Efficient loading was dependent on both focused ultrasound and the presence of refillable depots in the brain as absence of either prevented intracranial loading. CONCLUSION The ability to target and retain small molecules at predetermined intracranial sites with pinpoint accuracy provides opportunities to continuously deliver drugs to the brain over weeks and months without excessive BBB opening and with minimal off-target side effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher T. Moody
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University – Raleigh. 1840 Entrepreneur Drive. Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
- Comparative Medicine Institute, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC USA
| | - Phillip G Durham
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University – Raleigh. 1840 Entrepreneur Drive. Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
- Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Paul A Dayton
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University – Raleigh. 1840 Entrepreneur Drive. Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
- Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Yevgeny Brudno
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University – Raleigh. 1840 Entrepreneur Drive. Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
- Comparative Medicine Institute, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC USA
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Sahoo A, He H, Darrow D, Chen CC, Ebbini ES. Image-Guided Measurement of Radiation Force Induced by Focused Ultrasound Beams. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL 2023; 70:138-146. [PMID: 36350863 PMCID: PMC10079628 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2022.3221049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The radiation force balance (RFB) is a widely used method for measuring acoustic power output of ultrasonic transducers. The reflecting cone target is attractive due to its simplicity and long-term stability, at a reasonable cost. However, accurate measurements using this method depend on the alignment between the ultrasound beam and cone axes, especially for highly focused beams utilized in therapeutic applications. With the advent of dual-mode ultrasound arrays (DMUAs) for imaging and therapy, image-guided measurements of acoustic output using the RFB method can be used to improve measurement accuracy. In this article, we describe an image-guided RFB measurement of focused DMUA beams using a widely used commercial instrument. DMUA imaging is used to optimize the alignment between the acoustic beam and reflecting cone axes. In addition to image-guided alignment, DMUA echo data is used to track the displacement of the cone, which provides an auxiliary measurement of acoustic power. Experimental results using a DMUA prototype with [Formula: see text] shows that 1-2 mm of misalignment can result in 5%-14% error in the measured acoustic power. In addition to the use of B-mode image guidance for improving measurement accuracy, we present preliminary results demonstrating the benefit of displacement tracking using real-time DMUA imaging during the application of (sub)therapeutic focused beams. Displacement tracking provides a direct measurement of the radiation force with high sensitivity and follows the expected dependence on changes in amplitude and duty cycle (DC) of the focused ultrasound (FUS) beam. This could lead to simpler, more reliable methods for measuring acoustic power based on the radiation force principle. Combined with appropriate computational modeling, the direct measurement of acoustic radiation force could lead to reliable dosimetry in situ in emerging applications such as transcranial FUS (tFUS) therapies.
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Bao SC, Li F, Xiao Y, Niu L, Zheng H. Peripheral focused ultrasound stimulation and its applications: From therapeutics to human-computer interaction. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1115946. [PMID: 37123351 PMCID: PMC10140332 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1115946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Peripheral focused ultrasound stimulation (pFUS) has gained increasing attention in the past few decades, because it can be delivered to peripheral nerves, neural endings, or sub-organs. With different stimulation parameters, ultrasound stimulation could induce different modulation effects. Depending on the transmission medium, pFUS can be classified as body-coupled US stimulation, commonly used for therapeutics or neuromodulation, or as an air-coupled contactless US haptic system, which provides sensory inputs and allows distinct human-computer interaction paradigms. Despite growing interest in pFUS, the underlying working mechanisms remain only partially understood, and many applications are still in their infancy. This review focused on existing applications, working mechanisms, the latest progress, and future directions of pFUS. In terms of therapeutics, large-sample randomized clinical trials in humans are needed to translate these state of art techniques into treatments for specific diseases. The airborne US for human-computer interaction is still in its preliminary stage, but further efforts in task-oriented US applications might provide a promising interaction tool soon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi-Chun Bao
- National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices, Shenzhen, China
- Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Fei Li
- Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yang Xiao
- National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices, Shenzhen, China
- Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Lili Niu
- Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Hairong Zheng
- Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
- *Correspondence: Hairong Zheng,
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Lee MH, Lew HM, Youn S, Kim T, Hwang JY. Deep Learning-Based Framework for Fast and Accurate Acoustic Hologram Generation. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL 2022; 69:3353-3366. [PMID: 36331635 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2022.3219401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Acoustic holography has been gaining attention for various applications, such as noncontact particle manipulation, noninvasive neuromodulation, and medical imaging. However, only a few studies on how to generate acoustic holograms have been conducted, and even conventional acoustic hologram algorithms show limited performance in the fast and accurate generation of acoustic holograms, thus hindering the development of novel applications. We here propose a deep learning-based framework to achieve fast and accurate acoustic hologram generation. The framework has an autoencoder-like architecture; thus, the unsupervised training is realized without any ground truth. For the framework, we demonstrate a newly developed hologram generator network, the holographic ultrasound generation network (HU-Net), which is suitable for unsupervised learning of hologram generation, and a novel loss function that is devised for energy-efficient holograms. Furthermore, for considering various hologram devices (i.e., ultrasound transducers), we propose a physical constraint (PC) layer. Simulation and experimental studies were carried out for two different hologram devices, such as a 3-D printed lens, attached to a single element transducer, and a 2-D ultrasound array. The proposed framework was compared with the iterative angular spectrum approach (IASA) and the state-of-the-art (SOTA) iterative optimization method, Diff-PAT. In the simulation study, our framework showed a few hundred times faster generation speed, along with comparable or even better reconstruction quality, than those of IASA and Diff-PAT. In the experimental study, the framework was validated with 3-D printed lenses fabricated based on different methods, and the physical effect of the lenses on the reconstruction quality was discussed. The outcomes of the proposed framework in various cases (i.e., hologram generator networks, loss functions, and hologram devices) suggest that our framework may become a very useful alternative tool for other existing acoustic hologram applications, and it can expand novel medical applications.
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Li F. 铅基弛豫铁电单晶的高性能化机理研究. CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN-CHINESE 2022. [DOI: 10.1360/tb-2022-0537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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