无需标注数据,用深度学习提升超声微血管成像分辨率与速度。
CycleULM: A unified label-free deep learning framework for ultrasound localisation microscopy
- 基于CycleGAN构建无监督域转换,模拟微泡仅存在的真实图像。
- 对比度提升15.3dB,点扩散函数宽度缩小2.5倍,定位误差降低14.0μm。
- 支持实时处理(18.3帧/秒),适合临床快速成像应用。
通过微泡定位与追踪实现超分辨率超声成像(即超声定位显微镜,ULM),可突破声学衍射极限,解析微血管结构。然而,定位性能与数据采集处理时间仍面临挑战。现有深度学习方法受限于体内标注数据稀缺及仿真到现实的域差距。本文提出首个统一的无标签深度学习框架CycleULM,通过CycleGAN在真实增强型超声(CEUS)数据域与简化微泡仅存域之间学习物理拟合的映射关系,无需配对真值数据。该方法摆脱了对高保真模拟器或标注数据的依赖,显著简化微泡定位与追踪任务。部署于现有流程中或作为端到端框架,均在体外与体内数据集上取得显著性能提升:图像对比度(信噪比)最高提升15.3 dB,点扩散函数半高全宽缩小至2.5倍;微泡定位召回率提升40%,精确率提升46%,平均定位误差降低14.0 μm,重建血管更准确。更重要的是,系统实现18.3帧/秒的实时处理速度,较传统方法提速达14.5倍。结合无标签学习、性能提升与计算效率,CycleULM为鲁棒、实时的ULM提供了实用路径,加速其向临床转化。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Super-resolution ultrasound via microbubble (MB) localisation and tracking, also known as ultrasound localisation microscopy (ULM), can resolve microvasculature beyond the acoustic diffraction limit. However, significant challenges remain in localisation performance and data acquisition and processing time. Deep learning methods for ULM have shown promise to address these challenges, however, they remain limited by in vivo label scarcity and the simulation-to-reality domain gap. We present CycleULM, the first unified label-free deep learning framework for ULM. CycleULM learns a physics-emulating translation between the real contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) data domain and a simplified MB-only domain, leveraging the power of CycleGAN without requiring paired ground truth data. With this translation, CycleULM removes dependence on high-fidelity simulators or labelled data, and makes MB localisation and tracking substantially easier. Deployed as modular plug-and-play components within existing pipelines or as an end-to-end processing framework, CycleULM delivers substantial performance gains across both in silico and in vivo datasets. Specifically, CycleULM improves image contrast (contrast-to-noise ratio) by up to 15.3 dB and sharpens CEUS resolution with a 2.5{\times} reduction in the full width at half maximum of the point spread function. CycleULM also improves MB localisation performance, with up to +40% recall, +46% precision, and a -14.0 μm mean localisation error, yielding more faithful vascular reconstructions. Importantly, CycleULM achieves real-time processing throughput at 18.3 frames per second with order-of-magnitude speed-ups (up to ~14.5{\times}). By combining label-free learning, performance enhancement, and computational efficiency, CycleULM provides a practical pathway toward robust, real-time ULM and accelerates its translation to clinical applications.
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