Abstract
The aim of this study was to develop a novel automated motion compensation algorithm
for producing cumulative maximum intensity (CMI) images from subharmonic imaging (SHI)
of breast lesions. SHI is a nonlinear contrast-specific ultrasound imaging technique
in which pulses are received at half the frequency of the transmitted pulses. A Logiq
9 scanner (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA) was modified to operate in grayscale
SHI mode (transmitting/receiving at 4.4/2.2 MHz) and used to scan 14 women with 16
breast lesions. Manual CMI images were reconstructed by temporal maximum-intensity
projection of pixels traced from the first frame to the last. In the new automated
technique, the user selects a kernel in the first frame and the algorithm then uses
the sum of absolute difference (SAD) technique to identify motion-induced displacements
in the remaining frames. A reliability parameter was used to estimate the accuracy
of the motion tracking based on the ratio of the minimum SAD to the average SAD. Two
thresholds (the mean and 85% of the mean reliability parameter) were used to eliminate
images plagued by excessive motion and/or noise. The automated algorithm was compared
with the manual technique for computational time, correction of motion artifacts,
removal of noisy frames and quality of the final image. The automated algorithm compensated
for motion artifacts and noisy frames. The computational time was 2 min compared with
60–90 minutes for the manual method. The quality of the motion-compensated CMI-SHI
images generated by the automated technique was comparable to the manual method and
provided a snapshot of the microvasculature showing interconnections between vessels,
which was less evident in the original data. In conclusion, an automated algorithm
for producing CMI-SHI images has been developed. It eliminates the need for manual
processing and yields reproducible images, thereby increasing the throughput and efficiency
of reconstructing CMI-SHI images. The usefulness of this algorithm can be further
extended to other imaging modalities. (E-mail: [email protected])
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 21, 2009
Accepted:
April 18,
2009
Received in revised form:
March 27,
2009
Received:
August 22,
2008
Footnotes
Video Clips cited in this article can be found online at: http://www.umbjournal.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
