The University of British Columbia

Other

Sonic Incytes Medical Corp.

Caitlin Marie Schneider

Septimiu Edmund Salcudean

Robert Rohling

Mohammad Honarvar

Ali Baghani

Julio Raul Lobo

Christopher Yee Chaung Nguan

Brian Peter Stachniak

Example embodiments of the described technology provide systems and methods for ultrasound imaging. An example method may detect the presence of shear waves within a tissue region of a patient. The method may comprise exciting the tissue region of the patient with one or more exciters to induce propagation of shear waves within the tissue. A plurality of ultrasound images of the tissue may be acquired. A first image mask indicating which pixels of the acquired images represent a desired tissue type using a first trained machine learning model may be generated. The method may also comprise generating a second image mask indicating which pixels of the acquired images represent shear waves using a second trained machine learning model.

Systems and methods for detecting tissue and shear waves within the tissue

A system useful for performing ultrasound elastography of organs such as the liver allows efficient and robust data acquisition. The system may be applied to perform real-time, noninvasive ultrasound imaging of the liver in humans. Steady-state, shear wave absolute elastography is used to measure the Young's modulus of the liver tissue. This method involves the use of an external exciter or vibrator to shake the tissue and generate a shear wave. Accurate placement of an ultrasound transducer facilitates measurement of the tissue motion due to the shear wave. The stiffness of tissues in the region being imaged may be computed from the measured tissue motions. The following innovations address both vibrator and transducer placement, as well as some specific methods to ensure adequate wave propagation, in order to obtain accurate and consistent measurements.

Ultrasound shear wave vibro-elastography of the abdomen

A method is described for acquiring 3D quantitative ultrasound elastography volumes. A 2D ultrasound transducer scans a volume of tissue through which shear waves are created using an external vibration source, the synchronized measurement of tissue motion within the plane of the ultrasound transducer with the measurement of the transducer location in space, the reconstruction of tissue displacements and/or tissue velocities in time and space over a volume from this synchronized measurement, and the computation of one or several mechanical properties of tissue from this volumetric measurement of displacements. The tissue motion in the plane of the transducer may be measured at a high effective frame rate in the axial direction of the transducer, or in the axial and lateral directions of the transducer. The tissue displacements and/or tissue velocities over the measured volume may be interpolated over a regular grid in order to facilitate computation of mechanical properties.

Quantitative elastography with tracked 2D ultrasound transducers

A method is described for acquiring 3D quantitative ultrasound elastography volumes. In one embodiment, the method comprises using a 2D ultrasound transducer to scan a volume of tissue through which shear waves are created using an external vibration source, the synchronized measurement of tissue motion within the plane of the ultrasound transducer with the measurement of the transducer location in space, the reconstruction of tissue displacements in time and space over a volume from this synchronized measurement, and the computation of one or several mechanical properties of tissue from this volumetric measurement of displacements. The tissue motion in the plane of the transducer may be measured at a high effective frame rate in the axial direction of the transducer, or in the axial and lateral directions of the transducer. The tissue displacements over the measured volume may be interpolated over a regular grid in order to make the computation of mechanical properties easier.

An intra-operative ultrasound probe for use with a robotic and laparoscopic surgical systems that allows for direct surgeon control over the position and orientation of the ultrasound image is presented. The transducer is designed to interface with the laparoscopic grasper so that it is easy to pick up in a locking, self-aligning and repeatable manner. The transducer is tracked in space using either forward kinematics or electromagnetic sensing, allowing multiple 2D images to be combined in order to create 3D ultrasound volumes. The 3D volumes can be further processed and displayed on the surgeon's console, or used to register and display acquired pre-operative images at the correct spatial location within the patient.

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Vancouver, Canada

Caitlin Marie Schneider