US 12,150,813 B2
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for generating super-resolution images of microvasculature using ultrasound
Gianmarco Francesco Pinton, Chapel Hill, NC (US); Thomas Montgomery Kierski, Durham, NC (US); David Antonio Espindola Rojas, Chapel Hill, NC (US); Paul Alexander Dayton, Carrboro, NC (US); and Isabel Grace Newsome, Chapel Hill, NC (US)
Assigned to THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, Chapel Hill, NC (US)
Appl. No. 17/606,986
Filed by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (US)
PCT Filed May 11, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/032406
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 27, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/231954, PCT Pub. Date Nov. 19, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/846,133, filed on May 10, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0211350 A1, Jul. 7, 2022
Int. Cl. A61B 8/08 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 8/5207 (2013.01) [A61B 8/0891 (2013.01); A61B 8/481 (2013.01)] 38 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for producing an image of contrast agent particles, at least some of which are stationary with respect to surrounding tissue, the method comprising:
administering a contrast agent particle into at least one vessel;
delivering, utilizing at least one ultrasound transducer having non-overlapping −6 dB first and second bandwidths for transmit and receive, a single ultrasound pulse having a first frequency range from the first bandwidth to the at least one vessel;
detecting, utilizing the at least one ultrasound transducer and at a second frequency range from the second bandwidth ultrasound energy scattered from the contrast agent particle as a result of the single ultrasound pulse having the first frequency range being scattered by the contrast agent particle;
converting the scattered ultrasound energy into an electronic radio frequency signal;
using an algorithm to determine a spatial location of the contrast agent particle based on extraction of a specific feature of the radio frequency signal;
generating an image by displaying a marker of the spatial location of the contrast agent particle, wherein the marker comprises at least one pixel; and
repeating the detecting, converting, using, and generating for a plurality of contrast agent particles, at least some of which are stationary or moving at the same velocity with respect to surrounding tissue, until sufficient markers have been accumulated to reconstruct a pattern, which is an image of the contrast agent particles, including the particles that are stationary or moving at the same velocity with respect to the surrounding tissue and located within at least one vessel, and the image of the contrast agent particles forms an image of the at least one vessel and has a resolution that is finer than a pulse length of the ultrasound pulse.