Systems and methods for matching and imaging tissue characteristics

• US 9,514,358 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2013
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Original Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Inventors: Konofagou, Elisa, Provost, Jean
• Primary Examiner(s): SIRIPURAPU, RAJEEV P
• Application Number:
  US13/848,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20130315491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,356 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7289 Retrospective gating, i.e. associating measured signals or images with a physiological event after the actual measurement or image acquisition, e.g. by simultaneously recording an additional physiological signal during the measurement or image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/03 Computed tomography [CT] echo-tomography A61B8/14
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/503 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/504 for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/5205 involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/5288 involving retrospective matching to a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0891 for diagnosis of blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/485 involving measuring strain or elastic properties
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5207 involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image reconstruction G06T11/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5284 involving retrospective matching to a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8977 using special techniques for image reconstruction, e.g. FFT, geometrical transformations, spatial deconvolution, time deconvolution
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52042 determining elastic properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target diagnostic techniques involving the measurement of strain A61B8/485
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52071 Multicolour displays; using colour coding; Optimising colour or information content in displays, e.g. parametric imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10088 Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10132 : Ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30024 : Cell structures in vitro; Tissue sections in vitro
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30048 : Heart; Cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 : Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

Systems and methods for matching a characteristic of multiple sectors of a moving tissue to verify an overlap thereof are disclosed herein. In an exemplary method, tissue data for at least a first sector and a second sector of a moving tissue is acquired. A characteristic of at least a portion of the first and second sectors is estimated from the acquired tissue data, and the estimated characteristics are matched to verify whether a portion of the first sector overlaps with a portion of the second sector. Estimating can include estimating a displacement such as an axial displacement and/or lateral displacements. Estimating can further include estimating a strain, a velocity, a strain rate and/or a stiffness or equivalent.

Claims

1. A method for imaging an electromechanical wave propagation through a tissue, comprising:

acquiring tissue data for at least a first sector and a second sector of said tissue, said electromechanical wave propagating through said first and second sectors of said tissue;

estimating a characteristic of at least a portion of said first sector and a characteristic of at least a portion of said second sector from said acquired tissue data;

matching said estimated characteristic of said portion of said first sector with said estimated characteristic of said portion of said second sector;

determining a time delay between said matched characteristic of said portion of said first sector and said matched characteristic of said portion of said second sector; and

forming an image of said electromechanical wave propagating through said portion of said first sector and said portion of said second sector utilizing said determined time delay.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said characteristic comprises a displacement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said characteristic comprises a strain.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said characteristic comprises velocity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said characteristic comprises a strain rate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said characteristic comprises a stiffness.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said displacement comprises axial displacement.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein said displacement comprises lateral displacement.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein forming said image comprises forming a one-dimensional image of said electromechanical wave propagating through said tissue.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating said characteristic further comprises using a speckle-tracking technique.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring electrical activity data from said moving tissue; and

determining a correspondence between said electrical activity and said estimated characteristic of said portion of said first sector and said estimated characteristic of said portion of said second sector.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein forming said image comprises forming a two-dimensional image, a three-dimensional image, or a four-dimensional image of said electromechanical wave propagating through said tissue.

12. A system for imaging an electromechanical wave propagation through a tissue, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions; and

a processor adapted to receive tissue data for at least a first sector and a second sector of said tissue, said electromechanical wave propagating through said first and second sectors of said tissue,

wherein said processor is operatively connected to said non-transitory computer readable medium and configured to execute said stored program instructions,

wherein said processor is further configured such that upon execution of said stored program instructions, said processor;

estimates a characteristic of at least a portion of said first sector and a characteristic of at least a portion of said second sector from said acquired tissue data,

matches said estimated characteristic of said portion of said first sector with said estimated characteristic of said portion of said second sector;

determining a time delay between said matched characteristic of said portion of said first sector and said matched characteristic of said portion of said second sector; and

forming an image of said electromechanical wave propagating through said portion of said first sector and said portion of said second sector utilizing said determined time delay.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a data acquisition device for acquiring data from two or more sectors of said tissue.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said data acquisition device comprises an ultrasound device, an MRI device, or a CT device.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising an electrical detection device configured to detect an electrical signal propagating through said tissue.