{"doi":"10.1109/ius46767.2020.9251422","title":"Nakagami-m parametric characterization of contrast-enhanced ultrasound: In vivo validations","abstract":"Background, Motivation and Objectives: The distribution of echoes from simulated and in vitro nonlinear scattering microbubbles obeys the Nakagami (NK) model, of which shape parameter ( m) has the potential to suppress the artifacts from systems and operators in echo amplitude-coding contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) (Med. Phys. 2019, 46: 5467-5477). However, the feasibility of m estimation in in vivo CEUS is still controversial and its sensitivity and discriminability are limited, since raw envelopes are regulated by complex radiofrequency (RF) and video-frequency (VF) processing. This study aimed to illustrate this regulation mechanism and overcome these limitations. Statement of Contribution/Methods: The regulation mechanism of eight harmonic detection techniques and logarithmic compression on NK distributions was investigated in both B and pulse-inversion (PI) modes. A window-modulated compounding moment estimator (WMCME) was developed to estimate the CEUS m values. Sensitivity and discriminability of m-coding CEUS were respectively quantified by m-contrast-to-tissue ratio (mCTR), m-contrast-to-noise ratio (mCNR), and -2 dB half-lengths of axial and lateral autocorrelation functions, which were validated via in vivo perfusion experiments of rabbit kidneys. Results, Discussion and Conclusions: Regulated by the RF&VF processing, the distributions of CEUS also obeyed the NK model, of which NK-fitted correlation coefficient was in t-test and in Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). In all m-coding CEUS methods, logarithmic m-coding PI scheme well-characterized the ring-like perfusion features and details within the renal cortex. The m CTR, m CNR, -2 dB axial and lateral half-lengths were up to 7.9±1.5 dB, 34.4±1.7 dB, 1.02±0.02 and .91±0.02 mm, respectively, which were higher than or comparable with amplitude-coding CEUS. The NK model can characterize CEUS even if the envelope distributions were regulated by the RF & VF processing. The logarithmic m-coding PI scheme significantly improved the sensitivity, discriminability, and robustness of m estimation in CEUS. This scheme provided an option to remove those artifacts in echo amplitude-coding CEUS and more distinctly characterize the inherent microvasculature marked by microbubbles, which could provide a valuable technique to improve precise diagnoses and therapy.","journal":null,"year":2020,"id":131590,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9607,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":525853,"name":"Mingxi Wan","orcid":"0000-0002-6704-1216","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":454737,"name":"Chris J. Diederich","orcid":"0000-0002-7260-6226","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":525851,"name":"Diya Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-2063-1489","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":13,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:16:03.875886Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}