Ultrasound Localization Microscopy and Super-Resolution: A State of the Art

Olivier Couture (1) , Vincent Hingot , Baptiste Heiles , Pauline Muleki-Seya (2) , Mickael Tanter (1)

1 IL - Institut Langevin - Ondes et Images (UMR7587)
2 O&I - Ondes et Imagerie

Because it drives the compromise between resolution and penetration, the diffraction-limit has long represented an unreachable summit to conquer in ultrasound imaging. Within a few years after the introduction of optical localization microscopy, we proposed its acoustic alter-ego that exploits the micrometric localization of microbubble contrast agents to reconstruct the finest vessels in the body in-depth. The various groups now working on the subject are optimizing the localization precision, microbubble separation, acquisition time, tracking and velocimetry to improve the capacity of ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) to detect and distinguish vessels much smaller than the wavelength. It has since been used in-vivo in the brain (figure 1), the kidney and in tumors. In the clinic, ULM is bound to improve drastically our vision of the microvasculature, which could revolutionize the diagnosis of cancer, arteriosclerosis, stroke and diabetes, among others. Figure 1: Ultrasound Localization Microscopy of the living rat brain (reconstructed from data in [1])

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biotechnologies; Imagerie

Olivier Couture, Vincent Hingot, Baptiste Heiles, Pauline Muleki-Seya, Mickael Tanter. Ultrasound Localization Microscopy and Super-Resolution: A State of the Art. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, 2018, 65 (8), pp.1304-1320. ⟨10.1109/TUFFC.2018.2850811⟩. ⟨hal-02344318⟩