3D Cerebral Ultrasound Elastography Incorporating Spatial and Temporal Priors

The objective of our project is to assess the physiological condition of brain tissue by mapping it’s elasticity in 3D using ultrasound. We will have both technical and clinical contributions in this project. Technically, we will develop a 3D ultrasound elastography method incorporating more than two volumes of ultrasound Radio-Frequency (RF) frames collected while tissue is undergoing deformation. A non-linear cost function consisting of data terms, spatial (axial, lateral and elevational) continuity terms and temporal regularization terms will be globally optimized to obtain frame to frame 3D displacement fields. Our clinical contribution will involve applying the aforesaid algorithm to ultrasound 3D RF data acquired during a brain surgery. Since any sort of abnormality causes a shift in the stiffness of the local tissue, the frame to frame displacement map will distinguish pathological tissue from the normal one. Having no regularized optimization based elastography been applied to characterize brain tissue in 3D thus far, our method will open a new window for helping clinicians in anomaly detection and image guided brain surgery.

Faculty Supervisor:

Hassan Rivaz

Student:

Partner:

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

Concordia University

Program: