Full cardiac cycle asynchronous temporal compounding of 3D echocardiography images
File(s)Manuscript_final submission copy.pdf (3.75 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Chan, Wei Xuan
Zheng, Yu
Wiputra, Hadi
Leo, Hwa Liang
Yap, Choon Hwai
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
It is important to improve echocardiography image quality, because the accuracy of echocardiographic assessment and diagnosis relies on image quality. Previous work on 2D temporal image compounding for image frames with matching cardiac phases (synchronous), and for temporally neighbouring image frames (asynchronous) over small ranges of time frames showed good improvement to image quality. Here, we extend this by performing asynchronous temporal compounding to echocardiographic images in 3D, involving all frames within a cardiac cycle, via a robust 3D cardiac motion estimation algorithm to describe the large image deformations. After compounding, the images can be reanimated via the motion model. Various methods of fusing image frames together are tested, including mean, max, and wavelet methods, and outlier rejection algorithms. The compounding algorithm is applied on 3D human adult, porcine adolescent, and human fetal echocardiography images. Results show significant improvements to contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and boundary clarity, and significantly decreased variability in manual quantification of cardiac chamber volumes after compounding. Interestingly, compounding can extend the field of view of the echo images, by reconstructing cardiac structures that momentarily exceeded the field of view, using the motion estimation algorithm to calculate their locations outside the field of view during these time periods. Although all compounding methods provide general improvements, the mean method led to blurred boundaries, while the max methods led to high variability of CNR. Outlier rejection algorithms were found to be useful in addressing these weaknesses.
Date Issued
2021-12-01
Date Acceptance
2021-09-09
Citation
Medical Image Analysis, 2021, 74, pp.1-14
ISSN
1361-8415
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
14
Journal / Book Title
Medical Image Analysis
Volume
74
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
British Heart Foundation
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000704125900002&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
RE/18/4/34215
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Engineering, Biomedical
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Computer Science
Engineering
Temporal compounding
4D Fetal echocardiography
Noise reduction and boundary clarity
Cardiac function
FETAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY
FUSION
QUALITY
SEGMENTATION
REGISTRATION
REDUCTION
FRAMEWORK
SPECKLE
STRAIN
IMPACT
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 102229
Date Publish Online
2021-09-16