Super-Resolution Posterior Ocular Microvascular Imaging Using 3-D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy With a 32X32 Matrix Array

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Main Authors: Zhang, Junhang, Lok, U-Wai, Zhang, Jingke, Huang, Chengwu, Sun, Xin, Chang, Chi-Feng, Liu, Baoqiang, Gong, Chen, Zeng, Yushun, Ji, Kaipeng, DeRuiter, Ryan M., Yin, Jingyi, Huang, Lijie, Zhao, Yanzhe, Liu, Ying, Song, Brian, Humanyun, Mark, Chen, Shigao, Zhou, Qifa
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhang, Junhang
Lok, U-Wai
Zhang, Jingke
Huang, Chengwu
Sun, Xin
Chang, Chi-Feng
Liu, Baoqiang
Gong, Chen
Zeng, Yushun
Ji, Kaipeng
DeRuiter, Ryan M.
Yin, Jingyi
Huang, Lijie
Zhao, Yanzhe
Liu, Ying
Song, Brian
Humanyun, Mark
Chen, Shigao
Zhou, Qifa
author_facet Zhang, Junhang
Lok, U-Wai
Zhang, Jingke
Huang, Chengwu
Sun, Xin
Chang, Chi-Feng
Liu, Baoqiang
Gong, Chen
Zeng, Yushun
Ji, Kaipeng
DeRuiter, Ryan M.
Yin, Jingyi
Huang, Lijie
Zhao, Yanzhe
Liu, Ying
Song, Brian
Humanyun, Mark
Chen, Shigao
Zhou, Qifa
contents The purpose of this study is to enable in-vivo three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) of posterior ocular microvasculature using a 256-channel system and a 1024-element matrix array, and to overcome limitations of restricted transmit angles, sound speed mismatch caused by the crystalline lens and surrounding tissues, and the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of microbubble signals. To address phase distortions from the crystalline lens, which has a higher speed of sound (SOS) than surrounding tissues, a region-dependent SOS beamforming approach was implemented to improve microbubble resolution. A 4-D non-local means filter was subsequently applied to suppress background noise and enhance microbubble contrast. The proposed method improved localization accuracy and image quality, achieving a spatial resolution of 63 um, while Fourier shell correlation (1/2-bit threshold) confirmed a global resolution of approximately 59 um. Higher mean normalized cross-correlation coefficients between the microbubbles and the system point-spread function, obtained with the proposed method (approximately 0.67), compared with those without the proposed method (approximately 0.60), indicate enhanced microbubble signal quality. Furthermore, the 3-D bi-directional vessel density and flow-velocity maps were reconstructed, capturing detailed choroidal vascular and hemodynamic patterns. These results demonstrate that region-dependent SOS beamforming combined with spatiotemporal denoising enables high-resolution posterior ocular ULM and provides a practical pathway toward quantitative 3-D assessment of retinal and choroidal microvasculature for potential clinical use.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_13966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Super-Resolution Posterior Ocular Microvascular Imaging Using 3-D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy With a 32X32 Matrix Array
Zhang, Junhang
Lok, U-Wai
Zhang, Jingke
Huang, Chengwu
Sun, Xin
Chang, Chi-Feng
Liu, Baoqiang
Gong, Chen
Zeng, Yushun
Ji, Kaipeng
DeRuiter, Ryan M.
Yin, Jingyi
Huang, Lijie
Zhao, Yanzhe
Liu, Ying
Song, Brian
Humanyun, Mark
Chen, Shigao
Zhou, Qifa
Medical Physics
Biological Physics
The purpose of this study is to enable in-vivo three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) of posterior ocular microvasculature using a 256-channel system and a 1024-element matrix array, and to overcome limitations of restricted transmit angles, sound speed mismatch caused by the crystalline lens and surrounding tissues, and the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of microbubble signals. To address phase distortions from the crystalline lens, which has a higher speed of sound (SOS) than surrounding tissues, a region-dependent SOS beamforming approach was implemented to improve microbubble resolution. A 4-D non-local means filter was subsequently applied to suppress background noise and enhance microbubble contrast. The proposed method improved localization accuracy and image quality, achieving a spatial resolution of 63 um, while Fourier shell correlation (1/2-bit threshold) confirmed a global resolution of approximately 59 um. Higher mean normalized cross-correlation coefficients between the microbubbles and the system point-spread function, obtained with the proposed method (approximately 0.67), compared with those without the proposed method (approximately 0.60), indicate enhanced microbubble signal quality. Furthermore, the 3-D bi-directional vessel density and flow-velocity maps were reconstructed, capturing detailed choroidal vascular and hemodynamic patterns. These results demonstrate that region-dependent SOS beamforming combined with spatiotemporal denoising enables high-resolution posterior ocular ULM and provides a practical pathway toward quantitative 3-D assessment of retinal and choroidal microvasculature for potential clinical use.
title Super-Resolution Posterior Ocular Microvascular Imaging Using 3-D Ultrasound Localization Microscopy With a 32X32 Matrix Array
topic Medical Physics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.13966