3D 1024-channel ultrasound medical imaging: a system for academic and clinical research – Image4US

The LabCom Image4US focuses on ultrasound (US) medical imaging with a large number of channels. It implies the company DB-SAS (SME, Nantes), specialized in ultrasound electronics, and the Centre de Recherche en Acquisition et Traitement de l'Image pour la Santé (Creatis, Lyon), specialized in medical imaging.

Ultrasound is today the most widespread medical imaging modality in the world thanks to fast, portable and non-invasive devices. While 2D imaging is widely practiced in the hospital, 3D ultrasound is slow to take hold in clinical practice. This is mainly due to the lack of image quality in terms of resolution, contrast and cadence compared to 2D imaging. The reasons for this discrepancy are multiple but the difficult growth of 3D imaging in clinical practice can be explained by 1) the difficulty of carrying out and validating the methods proposed in the field of academic research and 2) the difficulty of to obtain quality 3D imaging at high speed, allowing the extraction of parameters, to test emerging ideas in the field of clinical research.

The aim of the joint laboratory is therefore to propose and implement tomorrow's research system for 3D ultrasound medical imaging with a large number of channels (1024).This system will adress all researchers in ultrasound imaging. In the academic field, it will enable the validation of new imaging methods. In the clinical field, it will validate research hypotheses of clinical researchers, for which current systems do not allow the necessary measures.

The collaboration of Creatis and DB-SAS on this subject in the framework of a common laboratory will allow to propose a system in constant evolution which will allow DB-SAS to make evolve its products, and to Creatis to validate its methodological researches on an ultrasound machine advanced research.

DB-SAS is a company specializing in the design of electronic acquisition systems for ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT). Much of its resources are devoted to the development of new systems (16 out of 18 people work in Research and Development). The company wants to expand into the US medical imaging sector with a dedicated portable system currently under development (1024 channels).
Creatis is one of the leading European research laboratories in medical imaging. Researchers in the Ultrasound Imaging team have strong skills in 3D ultrasound imaging and in estimating blood flow (also known as Doppler imaging).

The areas of research around which the LabCom Image4US program will be articulated are:
• Axis 1: the development of a compact 1024-channel system for US 3D imaging with simple, integrated imaging modes combined with real-time visualization.
• Axis 2: the development of innovative methods in the field of ultrasound imaging: transmission sequence, spatially separated emission-reception, image formation by learning, motion compensation.
• Axis 3: Development of advanced Doppler imaging methods for imaging and 3D quantification of intracardiac (especially diastolic) and transmitral (eg regurgitation) flow.
Transversal action on the safety of the system will also be conducted in parallel.

The 3-year objectives are:
• Industrialize the 1024-lane, space-saving, research-based imaging system with integrated 3D imaging methods at high frame rates.
• Validate on the 1024-channel ultrasound system new methodological approaches in US medical imaging: imaging and Doppler imaging.