Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Publication Date
2-1-2025
Journal
Medical Physics
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A fundamental obstacle for the preclinical development of ultrasound-(US) mediated cardiac imaging remains cardiac motion, which limits interframe correlation during extended acquisition periods.
PURPOSE: To address this need, we present the design and implementation of a 3D-printed vacuum coupler that stabilizes a US transducer on the epicardial surface of the heart for feasibility assessment and development of advanced, cardiac, US-mediated imaging approaches.
METHODS: The vacuum coupler was 3D printed with biocompatible resins and secured with a standard intraoperative suction aspirator. US-mediated imaging (i.e., B-mode and photoacoustic [PA] imaging) was performed in an open-chest porcine model with and without the vacuum coupler. Based on inter-frame displacement tracking and cross-correlation (CC) coefficients, changes in frame motion and stability were compared for each imaging mode/configuration through a prolonged (∼1 min) acquisition, while the impact on PA-based SO
RESULTS: When compared to conventional handheld imaging, stand-off imaging, and coupler without suction, epicardial imaging with the vacuum coupler and suction applied led to a significantly reduced mean axial displacement of 0.15 mm versus 0.89, 0.49, & 0.49 mm, respectively (p-values ≤ 8.65e-7). Comparing the coupler without suction to that with suction applied, physiologically unrealistic SO
CONCLUSIONS: Epicardial US-mediated imaging with a vacuum coupler reduces cardiac motion artifact, providing a consistent sampling of an intended region of interest (ROI) over multiple cardiac cycles. This could help facilitate the development of advanced US-mediated imaging, which is often hindered by cardiac motion. Stable implementation of these imaging techniques could allow for intra-operative assessments of local cardiac perfusion as well as tissue characterization.
Keywords
Vacuum, Animals, Swine, Printing, Three-Dimensional, Heart, Thorax, Equipment Design, Echocardiography, 3D printing and modeling, cardiac motion, photoacoustic imaging, transducer stabilizer, ultrasound imaging
DOI
10.1002/mp.17511
PMID
39545706
PMCID
PMC11788239
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
11-15-2024
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
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