{"title":"Volumetric Estimation of the Backscatter Coefficient With a Matrix Probe","authors":"Valentin Mazellier;François Varray;Pauline Muleki-Seya","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3588811","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3588811","url":null,"abstract":"Evaluation of the backscatter coefficient (BSC) from soft tissues has many applications for medical diagnosis. However, electronic noise and spatial variations often affect BSC estimation, requiring spatial averaging inside a region of interest (ROI) that reduces spatial resolution compared to the B-mode images. This study explores 3D BSC estimation using a matrix probes to address this trade-off by allowing narrower ROIs without losing robustness. A comparison study between a 1024-element matrix probe (V8) and two linear probes (L12-5, L22-8) was made on homogeneous agar-based phantoms with Orgasol particles (5, 10, and <inline-formula> <tex-math>$20~mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>m). BSC was computed using the reference phantom method, and robustness was assessed via the BSC standard deviation across ROIs. Results showed that, despite the lower B-mode resolution and longer correlation length between A-lines, volumetric estimation with a matrix probe offered comparable accuracy while enhancing robustness and resolution in the BSC map compared to the standard 2D estimation. These results could be beneficial for the analysis of complex heterogeneous media.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"119-122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11079648","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sophie V. Heymans;Marcus Ingram;Bram Carlier;Brecht Vandenborre;Marc Fournelle;Alessandro Ramalli;François Rottenberg;Koen van den Abeele;Jan D'Hooge
{"title":"Volumetric Passive Ultrasound Localization Microscopy of Radiation-Induced Nanodroplet Vaporization With a Large Aperture Matrix Array","authors":"Sophie V. Heymans;Marcus Ingram;Bram Carlier;Brecht Vandenborre;Marc Fournelle;Alessandro Ramalli;François Rottenberg;Koen van den Abeele;Jan D'Hooge","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3577590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3577590","url":null,"abstract":"Superheated nanodroplets (NDs) are proposed for in vivo radiation dose sensing applications, based on their ability to vaporize into echogenic microbubbles when exposed to ionizing radiation. Combined with Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (ULM), the ultrafast detection of radiation-induced ND vaporization produces super-resolved vaporization maps that match the radiation field with sub-millimeter accuracy. However, in the presence of flow, discriminating between microbubbles moving in the field of view and radiation-induced vaporization events is not trivial. As an alternative, sparse acoustic signatures emitted by vaporizing NDs can be super-localized by passive ULM, i.e. P-ULM. In this work, we extend our previous 2D implementation of P-ULM to 3D, using a large aperture matrix array probe. We exposed perfluorobutane NDs to a proton beam and recorded their vaporization signatures during irradiation. The events were extracted from the radiofrequency channel data using a spatiotemporal filtering approach and super-localized by fitting the time differences of arrival between channels to a one-way time of flight model. The vaporization maps were overlaid on the proton beam distribution and estimated the proton range and beam dispersion within <inline-formula> <tex-math>$0.98~pm ~0.04$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm and <inline-formula> <tex-math>$0.03~pm ~0.02$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm of the reference range measurement (depth-dose distribution in water measured with a diode), respectively. These results pave the way for volumetric dose mapping using radiosensitive nanodroplets and passive imaging.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"108-113"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11027146","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144281284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Valve Stenosis and Replacement on Wave Characteristics in Cardiac Shear Wave Elastography","authors":"Laurine Wouters;Lennert Minten;Marta Orlowska;Annette Caenen;Jürgen Duchenne;Jens-Uwe Voigt;Jan D’Hooge","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3577142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3577142","url":null,"abstract":"Cardiac shear wave elastography (SWE) is a non-invasive technique to assess myocardial stiffness, based on the speed of waves that travel through the heart after valve closure. The wave physics underlying natural SWE remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we investigated the impact of wave excitation sources on 3 wave propagation aspects – wave amplitude (determined as wave acceleration magnitude), temporal wave width and speed. SWE was applied to 17 patients with aortic stenosis (AS), 13 AS patients that underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), 10 AS patients that underwent surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) and 18 age-matched healthy volunteers (HV). Absolute wave acceleration was lower in AS, TAVI and AVR patients compared to HV (1.5±0.60 vs 2.8±1.1 m/s2; p=0.001; 1.6±0.78 vs 2.8±1.1 m/s2; p=0.010; 1.7±0.66 vs 2.8±1.1 m/s2; p=0.015). Wave acceleration amplitude (measured as negative peak acceleration of the tissue) correlated with wave speed (r=0.388; p=0.003), implying that absolute wave acceleration is smaller in a stiffer heart. Subgroup analysis showed that the correlation between wave peak acceleration and speed is less steep in AS patients vs. HV (slopes: 0.23 vs 0.47 s). This implies that stenotic valves generate a wave with a lower acceleration magnitude compared to native valves. Further, temporal wave width was lower in TAVI patients vs. HV (8.7±2.3 vs 12.5±3.0 ms; p=0.002) and there was no difference in wave speed after aortic valve closure (AVC) between the groups. To conclude, wave acceleration magnitude and width offer additional insights into SWE physics next to wave speed and should be verified in a larger cohort.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"114-118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11027079","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144492373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3541756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3541756","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"C2-C2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11026032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144219708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Håvard Kjellmo Arnestad;Andreas Austeng;Sven Peter Näsholm
{"title":"Construction of Orthogonal Transmit Sequences Using the Nearest Orthogonal Matrix","authors":"Håvard Kjellmo Arnestad;Andreas Austeng;Sven Peter Näsholm","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3576722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3576722","url":null,"abstract":"A wide variety of transmit sequences can be employed in medical ultrasound, including plane waves, diverging waves, and focused beams. The choice of sequence often involves trade-offs between resolution, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frame rate, and harmonic imaging capabilities. However, the desirable mathematical property of orthogonality (i.e., absence of cross-talk) between transmits has generally received less attention. This property, often lacking, becomes particularly relevant for the recent REFoCUS (retrospective encoding for conventional ultrasound sequences) technique, which we in this work connect to the array signal processing technique called beamspace processing. Given an arbitrary transmit sequence, REFoCUS enables the recovery of signals from single-element transmissions (known as the multistatic dataset) thereby enhancing beamforming flexibility. In this context, the choice of transmit sequence influences the recovery process when using the intuitively appealing and computationally efficient adjoint-based method, which must be replaced by a regularized pseudoinverse for general applicability. In the current work, we derive the “closest” alternative to any chosen transmit sequence that makes the regularized and adjoint methods yield equal estimates of the multistatic dataset, and show via numerical experiments a reduction in beam and/or element cross-talk. The derivation is based on a matrix nearness problem of finding the nearest orthogonal (or unitary) matrix to the encoding matrix using singular value decomposition (SVD). The resulting transmit sequences offer a time-domain equivalent understanding of the regularized REFoCUS method, as well as a solution for optimizing the invertibility of ultrasound sequences.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"103-107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11023854","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144264239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hasti Rostamikhanghahi;Marcus Ingram;Brian G. Booth;Jan D’Hooge
{"title":"Online Scaphoid Tracking Using a Wearable and Flexible Ultrasound Array: A First Proof of Concept","authors":"Hasti Rostamikhanghahi;Marcus Ingram;Brian G. Booth;Jan D’Hooge","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3566006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3566006","url":null,"abstract":"Percutaneous Scaphoid Fixation is a minimally invasive technique used to treat fractures of the scaphoid, the most fractured bone in the wrist. A significant challenge in this procedure is managing complications due to scaphoid movement due to wrist motion. This study aims to enhance the effectiveness of the intervention by introducing a novel wearable ultrasound array capable of flexible adherence and real-time tracking. By accurately monitoring scaphoid movement throughout the surgery, this innovation seeks to improve the overall success of the treatment. In previous research, a wearable transducer was designed to track the scaphoid during Percutaneous Scaphoid Fixation. In this study, ultrasound data was collected from this transducer and streamed to MATLAB, where an in-house developed algorithm employed template matching methods to track the scaphoid, specifically by identifying image segments that match a predefined template. With this method, we were able to demonstrate online processing at a frame rate of 28 Hz, which aligns with most clinical scanners, indicating the potential of this scaphoid tracking method for deployment on a clinical scanner.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"58-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10981429","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hasti Rostamikhanghahi;Marcus Ingram;Brian G. Booth;Jan D’Hooge
{"title":"Evaluation of a Dual Linear Flexible Ultrasound Array for Surgical Interventional Guidance","authors":"Hasti Rostamikhanghahi;Marcus Ingram;Brian G. Booth;Jan D’Hooge","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3560938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3560938","url":null,"abstract":"Scaphoid fractures, the most common of wrist bone fractures, are typically treated using Percutaneous Scaphoid Fixation (PSF). Incorporating ultrasound guidance into this technique could reduce reliance on fluoroscopy, thereby avoiding ionizing radiation and improving procedural accuracy. However, the scaphoid’s position can shift as a result of hand movement during PSF, adding complexity to the procedure. Real-time ultrasound motion tracking of the scaphoid during PSF could simplify the intervention, which would necessitate a flexible transducer array to maintain contact during wrist motion. Our previous research proposed a transducer design with two parallel flexible 1D arrays, enabling simultaneous acquisition of two parallel images. This study focuses on transitioning from theoretical design to practical application by evaluating the performance of the custom array in terms of image quality using phantoms. We assessed image quality using the generalized contrast-to-noise ratio (gCNR) on a cyst phantom and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) on a wire phantom. Results demonstrated gCNR values above 0.67 and FWHM values below 0.70 mm across all sequences. These measurements fall within the acceptable range for the phantoms. Since the primary goal of the array is to track the scaphoid bone during surgery, requiring relatively high image quality, the values observed in this study are suitable for this application.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"43-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10965791","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143892434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optical Characteristics of an Ultrasound Gel Lens","authors":"Haruto Miki;Fumiko Taniguchi;Kosuke Nakamura;Yuki Harada;Mami Matsukawa;Daisuke Koyama","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3561101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3561101","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional camera modules are characterized by a substantial size, thickness, and weight. This is a consequence of the need for multiple lens elements to achieve the required level of image quality. However, as portable electronic devices continue to undergo miniaturization, there is a growing demand for smaller and thinner camera modules. In this paper, the optical characteristics of an ultrasound gel lens were evaluated quantitatively by expanding the wavefront of the transmitted light in terms of the Zernike polynomial. It was possible to control the focal length of the lens by changing its surface profile through the acoustic radiation force generated by ultrasonic vibration. The effects of ultrasound excitation on spherical aberration, coma aberrations, and astigmatisms were investigated. It was observed that spherical and coma aberrations increased with voltage amplitude, while astigmatism exhibited a reduction in magnitude.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"48-52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10965713","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143892532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna V. Phillips;Cherie M. Kuzmiak;Gabriela Torres;Caterina M. Gallippi
{"title":"VisR Ultrasound Improves Diagnosis of Breast Cancer by the Elastogram-to-B-Mode Ratio in a Blinded Reader Study","authors":"Anna V. Phillips;Cherie M. Kuzmiak;Gabriela Torres;Caterina M. Gallippi","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3560585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3560585","url":null,"abstract":"Ultrasound elastography is increasingly being used alongside mammography for breast cancer diagnosis, particularly in women with radiographically dense breasts. The elastogram-to-B-Mode ratio (E/B), which compares lesion sizes in B-Mode and stiffness images, has been shown to differentiate malignant (E/B >1) from benign (E/B <1)>1 in malignant lesions and <1 in benign lesions) to those observed in stiffness images. Additionally, E/B values calculated from RE alone, RV alone, or a combination of RE and RV achieved 4-16% higher AUCs for discriminating malignant lesions compared to E/B derived solely from Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) peak displacement. These results suggest that incorporating VisR-derived viscosity and elasticity metrics into E/B calculations could significantly improve diagnostic accuracy for breast cancer detection.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"67-76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10964276","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144090710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ambuj K. Gautam;Ching-Chung Yin;Bishakh Bhattacharya
{"title":"Defect Orientation Evaluation in Structural Plates Using Reflective Correlation Indexing","authors":"Ambuj K. Gautam;Ching-Chung Yin;Bishakh Bhattacharya","doi":"10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3556974","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJUFFC.2025.3556974","url":null,"abstract":"The fundamental shear horizontal (SH0) modes exhibit conversion behaviors to higher mode (SH1) influenced by the symmetric and anti-symmetric defects within a plate. Specifically, reflected SH0 modes remain unaffected by symmetrically oriented defects while transitioning to SH1 mode in the presence of anti-symmetrically oriented defects. This prompts inquiry into the effects when defects lie between symmetric and anti-symmetric positions within the plate thickness. In order to quantify the impact of mode conversion resulting from diverse defect orientations, a thorough analysis has been conducted, and a methodology has been proposed to assess the defect’s position using mode conversion of shear horizontal (SH) guided waves. Particularly, as defects move from symmetric to anti-symmetric positions, the energy of the reflected wave is notably influenced by the defect’s orientation. This indicates that defects located close to symmetric orientations yield minimal reflected energy in the converted SH1 mode, whereas those approaching anti-symmetric orientations exhibit significant reflected energy in the converted SH1 mode. To precisely identify the defect’s position, an assessment of the Reflective Correlation Indexing (RCI) of the converted mode has been conducted. Numerical simulations have been performed to investigate these phenomena and validated with an experimental result using chevron EMAT.","PeriodicalId":73301,"journal":{"name":"IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"5 ","pages":"38-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10947017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143830541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}