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Biomedical subjects

B Brendel

Publications and source records attributed to B Brendel.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Vibrography: first experimental results in swine brains.

OBJECT: The aim of this study was to determine whether vibrography, an ultrasound-based real-time strain imaging method for registering the elastic properties of tissue, is superior to conventional ultrasound imaging techniques for detecting low-contrast space-occupying lesions in brain tissue and for delineating the boundaries between such lesions and the surrounding tissue. METHODS: As our experimental model we used swine brains taken from freshly slaughtered pigs. After injecting agarose into these brains at different depths, we compared both the conventional ultrasonographic images and the elastographic images of the region of interest with the corresponding anatomical brain sections. RESULTS: In 83.6 % of the experiments, it was possible to detect the polymerized agarose in the brain tissue with vibrographic techniques. In 17 experiments agarose lesions which were not detectable by ultrasound were visualized via vibrography. Furthermore, statistical analysis revealed that elastography is a more precise tool than conventional ultrasound for determining lesion size. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that vibrography is a promising real-time imaging method with numerous potential applications in the field of neurosurgery. Visualization of the elastic properties provides the neurosurgeon with additional data on the lesion and the boundary between the lesion and the surrounding tissue.

Animals↗

A nonuniform sampling approach for fast ultrasonic flow imaging.

Conventional Pulsed Wave Doppler (PWD) systems acquire an ensemble of N echoes per beam line at a constant pulse repetition frequency fprf, so that the pulse repetition interval equals Tpri = 1/fpn. The total time span determines the velocity resolution, and Tpri the unambiguous velocity range. The ensemble size N is by approximation inversely proportional to the frame rate, assuming that the system performs interleaving. For a given frame rate, a tradeoff can only be made between velocity resolution and velocity range. We propose an approach that allows increasing velocity resolution or range while keeping the frame rate constant. The approach is based on nonuniform sampling, i.e. sampling with varying sampling intervals. Thus, for a given ensemble size N a larger total time span, which would increase velocity resolution, or a shorter minimal Tpn, which would increase the velocity range, may be chosen. The conventional Doppler signal processing techniques are not compatible with nonuniform sampling. We, therefore, developed a velocity estimation algorithm for arbitrary sampling that is based on cross correlation. Furthermore, an adaptive wall filter was implemented that differentiates between tissue motion and blood flow. The new approach was successfully tested with in vitro and in vivo data.

Algorithms↗

Registration of 3D CT and ultrasound datasets of the spine using bone structures.

OBJECTIVE: In navigated orthopedic surgery, accurate registration of bones is of major interest. Usually, this registration is performed using landmarks positioned directly on the bone surface. These landmarks must be exposed during surgery. Our goal is to avoid the exposure of bone surface for the sole purpose of registration by using an intraoperative ultrasound device that can localize the bone through tissue. METHOD: We propose an algorithm for the registration of CT and ultrasound datasets that takes into account the fact that ultrasound produces very noisy images (speckle) and shows only parts of the bone surface. This part is made from the CT dataset. Next, a surface volume registration is performed by searching for a position of the estimated surface that maximizes the average gray value of the voxels in the ultrasound dataset covered by the surface. RESULTS: The algorithm was implemented and validated using an ex vivo preparation of a human lumbar spine with surrounding muscle tissue. On the basis of this data, the method has a large radius of convergence and a repeatability of 0.5 mm for displacement and 0.5 degrees for rotation. CONCLUSIONS: A robust algorithm for the registration of 3D CT and ultrasound datasets is presented. The computation time seems sufficiently short to permit intraoperative use.

Algorithms↗

Registration of bone surfaces, extracted from CT-datasets, with 3D ultrasound.

An essential task of computer assisted surgery is the registration of preoperative image data with the coordinate system of the operating room. This can be reached by using intraoperative imaging and registrating preoperative and intraoperative datasets. For intraoperative imaging ultrasound is a powerful tool due to the lack of ionizing radiation and because of its fast, inexpensive and easy data acquisition. We propose a surface volume matching algorithm for the registration of bone surfaces and ultrasound volume data. The bone surface is estimated from the preoperative CT data by taking into account that ultrasound only shows parts of the bone surface. By our method reliable matching results are obtained. They are shown with data of the lumbar spine.

Algorithms↗