Ultrasound Super-resolution Microvessel Imaging via Multilevel Decomposition Reconstruction

The trad-off between localization accuracy and acquisition time has been a major challenge in ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM). In this study, we introduce a novel ultrasound super-resolution strategy, which is termed as Multilevel Decomposition Reconstruction (MDR). Through multilevel wavelet decomposition in temporal domain, spatially overlapping microbubbles are decomposed into sparse subgroups before local radial symmetry of decomposed microbubbles is evaluated to overcome the diffraction limit. In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed method, vasculature was imaged in the biceps of Japanese long-ear white rabbits using clinical ultrasound system. The animal study demonstrates that MDR can roughly demonstrate super-resolved major microvessels in about 10 seconds using a single bolus injection of clinically approved microbubbles and reveal more detailed microvessels. We conclude that proposed MDR could be a powerful imaging tool in clinic application.