Development of open-source software for free-hand 3D vascular ultrasound: Dialysis fistula application

The arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the preferred vascular access for End Stage Renal Disease, having superior patency and lower infection risks than prosthetic graft and catheter access. When AVF dysfunction or delayed maturation does occur, the gold standard for diagnosis is the fistula angiogram (a.k.a. fistulogram). 3D ultrasound is available for obstetrical and other specialized uses, but it is cost prohibitive and has a field of view that is too small to cover the region of interest for the dialysis fistula application. We sought to develop a point of care 3D solution using freehand 2D ultrasound data acquisition.

We developed open-source software for 3D image reconstruction and projection of an angiogram-like image of the vascular access using a 2D freehand ultrasound scanner. We evaluated this software by comparing the ultrasound "sono-angiogram" images to fistulogram images in five subjects, using visual inspection and by applying the Percent of Exact Match (PEM) as a statistic test.

The sono-angiograms showed identifiable characteristics that matched the fistulogram results in all five subjects. The PEM ranged between 42.8% and 77.0%, with Doppler and grayscale ultrasound data, showing complementary advantages and disadvantages when used for sono-angiogram image construction. Motion from freehand ultrasound acquisition was a significant source of mismatch. 3D image generation is a potential advantage with ultrasound data.

While further work is needed to improve the accuracy with free hand scanning, fistulogram-like "sono-angiograms" can be generated using point of care 2D ultrasound. Methods such as these may be able to assist in point-of-care diagnosis in the future. The software is open-source, and importantly, the ultrasound data used are non-proprietary and available from any standard ultrasound machine. The simplicity and accessibility of this approach warrant further study.