Comparison of contrast in brightness mode and strain ultrasonography of glial brain tumours

BMC Medical Imaging

Geirmund Unsgård²  Ole Solheim²  Marit Indergaard¹  Reidar Brekken¹  Tormod Selbekk¹ 

[1] Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, Trondheim, Norway;Department of Neurosurgery, St. Olav University Hospital, Olav Kyrres gate 9, Trondheim, Norway

关键词: Image contrast;    Brain tumours;    Neurosurgery;    Brain;    Strain;    Elastogram;    Elastography;    Ultrasound;   

Others  :  1125926
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2342-12-11

 received in 2011-08-25, accepted in 2012-05-23,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Image contrast between normal tissue and brain tumours may sometimes appear to be low in intraoperative ultrasound. Ultrasound imaging of strain is an image modality that has been recently explored for intraoperative imaging of the brain. This study aims to investigate differences in image contrast between ultrasound brightness mode (B-mode) images and ultrasound strain magnitude images of brain tumours.

Methods

Ultrasound radiofrequency (RF) data was acquired during surgery in 15 patients with glial tumours. The data were subsequently processed to provide strain magnitude images. The contrast in the B-mode images and the strain images was determined in assumed normal brain tissue and tumour tissue at selected regions of interest (ROI). Three measurements of contrast were done in the ultrasound data for each patient. The B-mode and strain contrasts measurements were compared using the paired samples t- test.

Results

The statistical analysis of a total of 45 measurements shows that the contrasts in the strain magnitude images are significantly higher than in the conventional ultrasound B-mode images (P < 0.0001).

Conclusions

The results indicate that ultrasound strain imaging provides better discrimination between normal brain tissue and glial tumour tissue than conventional ultrasound B-mode imaging. Ultrasound imaging of tissue strain therefore holds the potential of becoming a valuable adjunct to conventional intraoperative ultrasound imaging in brain tumour surgery.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Selbekk et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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