On the Feasibility of Ultrasound Imaging Enrichment by Medium-Temperature Changes:

We describe the concept of a new imaging modality based on the tracking and dynamic modeling of local intensity changes (ICs) observed in conventional ultrasound images collected during a medium-temperature change. We computed the pixel-by-pixel IC from averaged B-mode images that exhibited different behaviors with varying temperature resulting from changes in the speed of sound, which consequently induce changes in the backscattered energy. Moreover, for each pixel, a first-order polynomial model was adjusted to the different temperature-dependent ICs. The representation of the polynomial angular parameter in 2D pixel space was used to obtain a parametric image. The results obtained by simulations and with real B-mode images indicated that this new ultrasound imaging modality was able to enhance the contrast and highlight structures that were poorly visible or even undetected in conventional images. A temperature change of 3°C was found to be sufficient to generate appropriate images with the proposed me...