Ultrasound diffraction attenuation microscopy in human quadriceps femoris muscle blood flow imaging

In this study, by using super-resolution radial fluctuations (SRRF), we propose a non-localizing ultrasound super-resolution method termed ultrasound diffraction attenuation microscopy (UDAM). By applying spatial and temporal analysis to the contrast-enhanced ultrasound image sequence, the point spread functions (PSFs) of diffraction can be significantly attenuated. In human study illustrates the proposed approach can obtain a super-resolved skeletomuscular vessel structure using only hundreds of frames at a frame rate of 30Hz in contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging mode, after a 2mL dose bolus injection of microbubbles. Compared with the conventional maximum intensity projection (MIP), the UDAM can significantly reduce the full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) of the one-dimensional microvessel signal and distinguish micro structure beyond the diffraction limitation. We conclude from our study that the UDAM provides a perspective non-invasive super- resolution imaging tool for the assessment of microvascular structure in clinical.