3-D Ultrasound Technique Fuses Data from Multiple Sources

A team of Oxford University biomedical engineers and cardiologists has developed a way of merging 3-D data from ultrasound transducers placed in different positions on a patient’s body. The researchers recently reported in the journal JACC Cardiovascular Imaging that, in a pilot study of 32 people, this boosted the quality of good/intermediate quality images of the heart from 70% with existing methods to more than 96%.

“For the first time we’ve shown in a detailed clinical study how fusion of 3-D data from different positions can improve the quality and completeness of the final image,” says Alison Noble of Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science, a co-author of the report.

“Our new technique saw significant improvements in the general image quality and the definition of features within the heart which should make it possible to spot even small abnormalities in, for example, the motion of the heart wall,” adds Harald Becher of Oxford University’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine.

The team’s method is based on voxels – 3-D units of data similar to 2-D pixels. By matching similar-looking voxels of data from different positions it is possible to calculate the best fit of a sequence of individual frames. This alignment is then applied first across “downgraded” low-resolution images before these are “upgraded” again to their original high-resolution – saving computation time.

‘This new approach is an exciting advance in echocardiography, as it enables us to see the sort of complete picture we weren’t able to before,” Harald explains. “For instance, in this study a number of the participants were Oxford rowers with very large left ventricles which could not be imaged from a single position. By fusing our data we were able to produce accurate three-dimensional images of the entire heart within seconds.”

The team say these preliminary results are encouraging, although further studies are needed with larger groups of patients. The researchers hope their approach could lead to greater use of 3-D echocardiography. They are currently looking at how it could be combined with other heart imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging.

More information on the research is available from Oxford University.

Tags: 3-D echocardiography, Oxford University, ultrasound transducer, voxels