Publications by authors named "R J G Van Sloun"

Background And Objective: The integration of ultrafast Doppler imaging with singular value decomposition clutter filtering has demonstrated notable enhancements in flow measurement and Doppler sensitivity, surpassing conventional Doppler techniques. However, in the context of transthoracic coronary flow imaging, additional challenges arise due to factors such as the utilization of unfocused diverging waves, constraints in spatial and temporal resolution for achieving deep penetration, and rapid tissue motion. These challenges pose difficulties for ultrafast Doppler imaging and singular value decomposition in determining optimal tissue-blood (TB) and blood-noise (BN) thresholds, thereby limiting their ability to deliver high-contrast Doppler images.

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The human brain undergoes major developmental changes during pregnancy. Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound images allow for the opportunity to investigate typical prenatal brain development on a large scale. Transabdominal ultrasound can be challenging due to the small fetal brain and its movement, as well as multiple sweeps that may not yield high-quality images, especially when brain structures are unclear.

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Active inference and deep generative modeling for cognitive ultrasound.

IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control

September 2024

Article Synopsis
  • Ultrasound technology has become portable and affordable, similar to stethoscopes, but its diagnostic quality still relies heavily on the operator's skill and the patient's condition.* -
  • The authors propose redesigning ultrasound systems as interactive "agents" that can autonomously adjust their imaging techniques to enhance the quality of diagnostic information based on real-time feedback from the environment.* -
  • By using advanced deep generative models and Bayesian inference, these systems can actively reduce uncertainty and improve diagnostic accuracy, with examples demonstrating cognitive ultrasound systems that adapt their imaging strategies effectively.*
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Overnight sleep staging is an important part of the diagnosis of various sleep disorders. Polysomnography is the gold standard for sleep staging, but less-obtrusive sensing modalities are of emerging interest. Here, we developed and validated an algorithm to perform "proxy" sleep staging using cardiac and respiratory signals derived from a chest-worn accelerometer.

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Data uncertainties, such as sensor noise, occlusions or limitations in the acquisition method can introduce irreducible ambiguities in images, which result in varying, yet plausible, semantic hypotheses. In Machine Learning, this ambiguity is commonly referred to as aleatoric uncertainty. In image segmentation, latent density models can be utilized to address this problem.

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