Simulation of 3D Ultrasound with a Realistic Electro-mechanical Model of the Heart

This paper presents a first set of experiments to integrate a realistic electro-mechanical model of a beating heart into simulated real-time three-dimensional (RT3D) ultrasound data. A novel ultrasound simulation framework is presented, extended from the model of Meunier [12]. True three-dimensional transducer modeling was performed, using RT3D acquisition design. Myocardium and blood scattering parameters were defined in three dimensions. Ultrasound data sets were generated for a normal case and a pathological case, simulating left bundle branch block. Accuracy of an optical flow tracking method was evaluated on the simulated data to measure displacements on the myocardial surfaces and inside the myocardium over a cardiac cycle. The proposed simulation framework has important motivations in a cardiac modeling context as part of this project is focused on the design of effective parameter estimation methods, based on cardiac imaging.

[1]  Jack Bresenham,et al.  Algorithm for computer control of a digital plotter , 1965, IBM Syst. J..

[2]  D. A. Seggie,et al.  Realistic Simulation of B-Scan Images , 1983 .

[3]  P.M. Shankar,et al.  Non-Rayleigh statistics of ultrasonic backscattered signals , 1994, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[4]  R.W.B. Stephens,et al.  IEEE ultrasonics symposium , 1972 .

[5]  R. F. Wagner,et al.  Statistical properties of radio-frequency and envelope-detected signals with applications to medical ultrasound. , 1987, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[6]  Michel Bertrand,et al.  Ultrasonic texture motion analysis: theory and simulation , 1995, IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging.

[7]  S.W. Smith,et al.  High-speed ultrasound volumetric imaging system. I. Transducer design and beam steering , 1991, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[8]  J. Meunier,et al.  Echographic image mean gray level changes with tissue dynamics: a system-based model study , 1995, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[9]  J C Bamber,et al.  Ultrasonic B-scanning: a computer simulation , 1980, Physics in medicine and biology.

[10]  Hervé Delingette,et al.  Deformable biomechanical models: Application to 4D cardiac image analysis , 2003, Medical Image Anal..

[11]  S.W. Smith,et al.  Sparse 2-D array design for real time rectilinear volumetric imaging , 2000, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[12]  J. Arendt.  Paper presented at the 10th Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Imaging: Field: A Program for Simulating Ultrasound Systems , 1996 .

[13]  Qi Duan,et al.  Evaluation of optical flow algorithms for tracking endocardial surfaces on three-dimensional ultrasound data , 2005, SPIE Medical Imaging.

[14]  Stephen W. Smith,et al.  Real time volumetric ultrasound imaging system , 1990, Journal of Digital Imaging.

[15]  K. Boone,et al.  Effect of skin impedance on image quality and variability in electrical impedance tomography: a model study , 1996, Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing.

[16]  A Sarti,et al.  3D modeling of phased array generated ultrasounds in lossy media. , 1993, Computerized medical imaging and graphics : the official journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society.

[17]  F. Kallel,et al.  Speckle motion artifact under tissue rotation , 1994, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[18]  S.W. Smith,et al.  High-speed ultrasound volumetric imaging system. II. Parallel processing and image display , 1991, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[19]  James S. Duncan,et al.  Towards pointwise motion tracking in echocardiographic image sequences - Comparing the reliability of different features for speckle tracking , 2006, Medical Image Anal..

[20]  Maxime Sermesant,et al.  Cardiac Function Estimation from MRI Using a Heart Model and Data Assimilation: Advances and Difficulties , 2005, FIMH.

[21]  A. Laine,et al.  Segmentation of real-time three-dimensional ultrasound for quantification of ventricular function: a clinical study on right and left ventricles. , 2005, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[22]  J Meunier.  Tissue motion assessment from 3D echographic speckle tracking. , 1998, Physics in medicine and biology.

[23]  P. Fitzgerald,et al.  Non-Rayleigh first-order statistics of ultrasonic backscatter from normal myocardium. , 1993, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[24]  Elsa D. Angelini,et al.  LV volume quantification via spatiotemporal analysis of real-time 3-D echocardiography , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[25]  W. Krassowska,et al.  Homogenization of syncytial tissues. , 1993, Critical reviews in biomedical engineering.

[26]  James S. Duncan,et al.  3D image segmentation of deformable objects with joint shape-intensity prior models using level sets , 2004, Medical Image Anal..

[27]  D. Chapelle,et al.  MODELING AND ESTIMATION OF THE CARDIAC ELECTROMECHANICAL ACTIVITY , 2006 .

[28]  Qi Duan,et al.  Comparing optical-flow based methods for quantification of myocardial deformations on RT3D ultrasound , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006..

[29]  James B. Spicer,et al.  Theoretical noise-limited sensitivity of classical interferometry , 1987 .

[30]  Michael Unser,et al.  Myocardial motion analysis from B-mode echocardiograms , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[31]  A. Laine,et al.  Dynamic Cardiac Information From Optical Flow Using Four Dimensional Ultrasound , 2005, 2005 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27th Annual Conference.

[32]  K. Parker,et al.  Deviations from Rayleigh Statistics in Ultrasonic Speckle , 1988, Ultrasonic imaging.

[33]  Stephen W. Smith,et al.  Real time rectilinear volumetric imaging , 2000, 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings. An International Symposium (Cat. No.00CH37121).

[34]  James S. Duncan,et al.  Estimation of 3D left ventricular deformation from echocardiography , 2001, Medical Image Anal..