Publications
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Passive Ultrasound Localization Microscopy of nanodroplet vaporizations during proton irradiation KU Leuven
Superheated nanodroplets (NDs) were recently proposed for in vivo proton range verification, owing to their ability to vaporize into echogenic microbubbles (MBs) upon exposure to ionizing radiation. In a previous publication, vaporization events were detected with 2D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (ULM) based on a pulse-echo method. Here, we introduce P-ULM, a passive version of ULM, based on the detection of acoustic signatures emitted by ...
Comparing myocardial shear wave propagation velocity estimation methods based on tissue displacement, velocity and acceleration data KU Leuven Ghent University
Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a promising technique used to assess cardiac function through the evaluation of cardiac stiffness non-invasively. However, in the literature, SWE varies in terms of tissue motion data (displacement, velocity or acceleration); method used to characterize mechanical wave propagation (time domain [TD] vs. frequency domain [FD]); and the metric reported (wave speed [WS], shear or Young's modulus). This variety of ...
Cardiac troponin T and NT-proBNP for detecting myocardial ischemia in suspected chronic coronary syndrome KU Leuven
BACKGROUND: Elevated N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptides (NT-proBNP) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) are associated with poor outcome in patients with chronic coronary syndrome (CCS). The performance of these biomarkers in diagnosing ischemia, and their association with myocardial hypoperfusion and hypokinesis is unclear. METHODS: Patients with suspected CCS (history of angina, estimated cardiovascular risk >15% or a positive stress ...
High frame rate speckle tracking for echocardiographic stress testing KU Leuven
Stress echocardiography helps to diagnose cardiac diseases that cannot easily be detected or do not even manifest at rest. In clinical practice, assessment of the stress test is usually performed visually and, therefore, in a qualitative and subjective way. Although speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) has been proposed for the quantification of function during stress, its time resolution is inadequate at high heart rates. Recently, ...
Acoustic Modulation Enables Proton Detection with Nanodroplets at Body Temperature KU Leuven
Superheated nanodroplet vaporization by proton radiation was recently demonstrated, opening the door to ultrasound-based in vivo proton range verification. However, at body temperature and physiological pressures, perfluorobutane nanodroplets (PFB-NDs), which offer a good compromise between stability and radiation sensitivity, are not directly sensitive to primary protons. Instead, they are vaporized by infrequent secondary particles, which ...
Ultrasound‑assisted carbon ion dosimetry and range measurement using injectable polymer‑shelled phase‑change nanodroplets: in vitro study KU Leuven
Methods allowing for in situ dosimetry and range verification are essential in radiotherapy to reduce the safety margins required to account for uncertainties introduced in the entire treatment workflow. This study suggests a non‑invasive dosimetry concept for carbon ion radiotherapy based on phase‑ change ultrasound contrast agents. Injectable nanodroplets made of a metastable perfluorobutane (PFB) liquid core, stabilized with a crosslinked ...
Spatially Variant Ultrasound Attenuation Mapping using a Regularized Linear Least-Squares Approach KU Leuven
Quantitative ultrasound methods aim to estimate the acoustic properties of the underlying medium, such as the attenuation and backscatter coefficients, and have applications in various areas including tissue characterization. In practice, tissue heterogeneity makes the coefficient estimation challenging. In this work, we propose a computationally efficient algorithm to map spatial variations of the attenuation coefficient. Our proposed approach ...
Assessing cardiac stiffness using ultrasound shear wave elastography KU Leuven Ghent University
Shear wave elastography offers a new dimension to echocardiography: it measures myocardial stiffness. Therefore, it could provide additional insights into the pathophysiology of cardiac diseases affecting myocardial stiffness and potentially improve diagnosis or guide patient treatment. The technique detects fast mechanical waves on the heart wall with high frame rate echography, and converts their propagation speed into a stiffness value. A ...
Feasibility and Accuracy of Automated Three-Dimensional Echocardiographic Analysis of Left Atrial Appendage for Transcatheter Closure KU Leuven
BACKGROUND: Procedural success of transcatheter left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) is dependent on correct device selection. Three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is more accurate than the two-dimensional modality for evaluation of the complex anatomy of the left atrial appendage (LAA). However, 3D transesophageal echocardiographic analysis of the LAA is challenging and highly expertise dependent. The aim of this study ...