Deep learning for fast denoising filtering in ultrasound localization microscopy

Abstract

Objective.Addition of a denoising filter step in ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has been shown to effectively reduce the error localizations of microbubbles (MBs) and achieve resolution improvement for super-resolution ultrasound (SR-US) imaging. However, previous image-denoising methods (e.g. block-matching 3D, BM3D) requires long data processing times, making ULM only able to be processed offline. This work introduces a new way to reduce data processing time through deep learning.Approach.In this study, we propose deep learning (DL) denoising based on contrastive semi-supervised network (CS-Net). The neural network is mainly trained with simulated MBs data to extract MB signals from noise. And the performances of CS-Net denoising are evaluated in bothin vitroflow phantom experiment andin vivoexperiment of New Zealand rabbit tumor.Main results.Forin vitroflow phantom experiment, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of single microbubble image are 26.91 dB and 4.01 dB, repectively. Forin vivoanimal experiment , the SNR and CNR were 12.29 dB and 6.06 dB. In addition, single microvessel of 24μm and two microvessels separated by 46μm could be clearly displayed. Most importantly,, the CS-Net denoising speeds forin vitroandin vivoexperiments were 0.041 s frame^-1and 0.062 s frame^-1, respectively.Significance.DL denoising based on CS-Net can improve the resolution of SR-US as well as reducing denoising time, thereby making further contributions to the clinical real-time imaging of ULM.

Keywords: contrastive semi-supervised network (CS-Net); deep learning (DL) denoising; microvessels; super-resolution ultrasound (SR-US).