Two Stage Sub-Wavelength Motion Correction in Human Microvasculature for CEUS Imaging

The structure of microvasculature cannot be resolved using clinical B-mode or contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging due to the fundamental diffraction limit. It is possible to overcome this resolution limitation by localizing individual microbubbles (MBs) through multiple frames and forming a super-resolved image. However, super-resolution (SR) imaging bring their own unique problems since the structures to be imaged are on the order of 10s of μm. Therefore, motion correction (MC) is crucial for SR imaging, where tissue movement much smaller than the ultrasound wavelength can significantly reduce the accuracy of SR images created from MB locations gathered through hundreds of frames.