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Updated: Sep 4, 2025
Contrast Imaging in Mouse Embryos Using High-frequency Ultrasound
Published on: March 4, 2015
Machine learning-enabled quantitative ultrasound techniques for tissue differentiation
Hannah Thomson1, Shufan Yang2,3, Sandy Cochran2
1Centre for Medical and Industrial Ultrasonics, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow, UK. s.yang@napier.ac.uk.
Purpose:
Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) infers properties about tissue microstructure from backscattered radio-frequency ultrasound data. This paper describes how to implement the most practical QUS parameters using an ultrasound research system for tissue differentiation.
Methods:
This study first validated chicken liver and gizzard muscle as suitable acoustic phantoms for human brain and brain tumour tissues via measurement of the speed of sound and acoustic attenuation. A total of thirteen QUS parameters were estimated from twelve samples, each using data obtained with a transducer with a frequency of 5-11 MHz. Spectral parameters, i.e., effective scatterer diameter and acoustic concentration, were calculated from the backscattered power spectrum of the tissue, and echo envelope statistics were estimated by modelling the scattering inside the tissue as a homodyned K-distribution, yielding the scatterer clustering parameter α and the structure parameter κ. Standard deviation and higher-order moments were calculated from the echogenicity value assigned in conventional B-mode images.
Results:
The k-nearest neighbours algorithm was used to combine those parameters, which achieved 94.5% accuracy and 0.933 F1-score.
Conclusion:
We were able to generate classification parametric images in near-real-time speed as a potential diagnostic tool in the operating room for the possible use for human brain tissue characterisation.
