Monitoring microwave ablation using ultrasound homodyned K imaging based on the noise-assisted correlation algorithm: An ex vivo study

Shuang Song; Po-Hsiang Tsui; Weiwei Wu; Shuicai Wu; Zhuhuang Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2020.106287

Monitoring microwave ablation using ultrasound homodyned K imaging based on the noise-assisted correlation algorithm: An ex vivo study

Ultrasonics. 2021 Feb:110:106287. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2020.106287. Epub 2020 Oct 17.

Authors

Shuang Song¹, Po-Hsiang Tsui², Weiwei Wu³, Shuicai Wu⁴, Zhuhuang Zhou⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China.
² Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Medical Imaging Research Center, Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung University and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
³ College of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China. Electronic address: wushuicai@bjut.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China. Electronic address: zhouzh@bjut.edu.cn.

PMID: 33091652
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2020.106287

Abstract

In this paper, we proposed ultrasound homodyned K (HK) imaging based on the noise-assisted correlation algorithm (NCA) for monitoring microwave ablation of porcine liver ex vivo. The NCA-based HK (α_NCA and k_NCA) imaging was compared with NCA-based Nakagami (m_NCA) imaging and NCA-based cumulative echo decorrelation (CED_NCA) imaging. Backscattered ultrasound radiofrequency signals of porcine liver ex vivo during and after the heating of microwave ablation were collected (n = 15), which were processed for constructing B-mode imaging, NCA-based HK imaging, NCA-based Nakagami imaging, and NCA-based CED imaging. To quantitatively evaluate the final coagulation zone, the polynomial approximation (PAX) technique was applied. The accuracy of detecting coagulation area with α_NCA, k_NCA, m_NCA, and CED_NCA parametric imaging was evaluated by comparing the PAX imaging with the gross pathology. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to further evaluate the performance of the three quantitative ultrasound imaging methods for detecting the coagulation zone. Experimental results showed that the average accuracies of α_NCA, k_NCA, m_NCA, and CED_NCA parametric imaging combined with PAX imaging were 89.6%, 83.25%, 89.23%, and 91.6%, respectively. The average areas under the ROC curve (AUROCs) of α_NCA, k_NCA, m_NCA, and CED_NCA parametric imaging were 0.83, 0.77, 0.83, and 0.86, respectively. The proposed NCA-based HK imaging may be used as a new method for monitoring microwave ablation.

Keywords: Echo decorrelation imaging; Microwave ablation; Nakagami imaging; Noise-assisted correlation algorithm (NCA); homodyned K imaging.

MeSH terms

Ablation Techniques*
Algorithms
Animals
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
In Vitro Techniques
Liver / diagnostic imaging*
Liver / surgery*
Microwaves / therapeutic use*
Swine
Ultrasonography / methods*