A Lightweight Deep Learning Network on a System-on-Chip for Wearable Ultrasound Bladder Volume Measurement Systems: Preliminary Study.

Bladder volume assessments are crucial for managing urinary disorders. Ultrasound imaging (US) is a preferred noninvasive, cost-effective imaging modality for bladder observation and volume measurements. However, the high operator dependency of US is a major challenge due to the difficulty in evaluating ultrasound images without professional expertise.

Phase aberration correction for ultrasound imaging guided extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT): Feasibility study.

Image guidance of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is important to enhance its efficacy while lowering pain in patients. Real-time ultrasound imaging is an appropriate modality for image guidance, but its image quality substantially reduces due to severe phase aberration from the different speed of sound between soft tissues and a gel pad, which is utilized to control a therapeutic focal point in ESWT. This paper presents a phase aberration correction method for improving image quality in the ultrasound imaging guided ESWT.

Air-Coupled Ultrasound Sealing Integrity Inspection Using Leaky Lamb Waves in a Simplified Model of a Lithium-Ion Pouch Battery: Feasibility Study.

Inspecting the sealing integrity of lead tabs is an important means of ensuring the reliability and safety of pouch-type lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries with a thin multi-layered aluminum (Al) laminated film. This paper presents a new air-coupled ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection method based on leaky Lamb wave transmission; and reception for evaluating the sealing integrity between the lead tab and the Al pouch film. The proposed method uses the critical incidence angle between the air and the layer with the fastest Lamb wave velocity to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio in the through-transmission mode.

Feasibility study using multifocal Doppler twinkling artifacts to detect suspicious microcalcifications in ex vivo specimens of breast cancer on US.

Multifocal Doppler twinkling artifact (MDTA) imaging has shown high detection rates of microcalcifications in phantom studies. We aimed to evaluate its performance in detecting suspicious microcalcifications in comparison with mammography by using ex vivo breast cancer specimens. We prospectively included ten women with breast cancer that presented with calcifications on mammography.

Real-Time Ultrasound Detection of Breast Microcalcifications Using Multifocus Twinkling Artifact Imaging.

Detecting microcalcifications (MCs) in real time is important in the guidance of many breast biopsies. Due to its capability in visualizing biopsy needles without radiation hazards, ultrasound imaging is preferred over X-ray mammography, but it suffers from low sensitivity in detecting MCs. Here, we present a new nonionizing method based on real-time multifocus twinkling artifact (MF-TA) imaging for reliably detecting MCs.

Ultrafast Power Doppler Imaging Using Frame-Multiply-and-Sum-Based Nonlinear Compounding.

Ultrafast power Doppler imaging based on coherent compounding (UPDI-CC) has become a promising technique for microvascular imaging due to its high sensitivity to slow blood flows. However, since this method utilizes a limited number of plane-wave or diverging-wave transmissions for high-frame-rate imaging, it suffers from degraded image quality because of the low contrast resolution. In this article, an ultrafast power Doppler imaging method based on a nonlinear compounding framework, called frame-multiply-and-sum (UPDI-FMAS), is proposed to improve contrast resolution.

Wide Field-of-View Ultrafast Curved Array Imaging Using Diverging Waves.

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging provides great opportunities for very high frame rate applications, such as shear wave elastography and microvascular imaging. However, ultrafast imaging with curved array transducers remains challenging in terms of element directivity and a limited field-of-view (FOV) for a fully synthetic area. In this paper, a wide FOV ultrafast curved array imaging method based on diverging wave transmissions is presented for high frame rate abdominal ultrasound applications.