Spatial compounding for 2D strain estimation in the mouse heart : a pilot study

• Estimating cardiac strain in the mouse in the lateral direction usingspeckle tracking with adapted clinical equipment was shown to be challenging dueto the fast heart rate and the large speckle size relative to the wallthickness. Compounding axial motion estimates acquired from different insonationangles can potentially improve lateral strain estimates. Therefore, the aim ofthis study was to test the feasibility of this methodology in the murine heartbased on simulated data sets. A 3D kinematic model of a murine left ventriclewas simulated and filled randomly with scatterers. Ultrasound short-axis images(10mm 6mm) were obtained by assuming a linear array transducer. Beam steeringwas simulated at 3 different angles (22, 0, 22). Axial motion was estimated ineach data set by 1D cross-correlation. A dynamic programming approach wasintegrated in the motion estimation algorithm to avoid discontinuities. Axialcomponents were combined to reconstruct the in-plane motion vector. The 2Ddisplacement fields were subsequently accumulated over the whole cycle. Theprocedure was repeated for 10 different distributions of scatterers to acquire10 different RF data sets (5 for parameter tuning and 5 for comparing themethods). Radial and circumferential RMS strain errors calculated from theaccumulated motion fields were compared with those obtained with 2D speckletracking. Spatial compounding yielded significantly better radial (RMSE: 0.07370.0078 vs. 0.112 0.0094) as well as circumferential strain (RMSE: 0.102 0.0097vs. 0.281 0.054).

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering (hsv//eng)

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