title: Clinical evaluation of synthetic aperture sequential beamforming ultrasound in patients with liver tumors.
abstract: Medical ultrasound imaging using synthetic aperture sequential beamforming (SASB) has for the first time been used for clinical patient scanning. Nineteen patients with cancer of the liver (hepatocellular carcinoma or colorectal liver metastases) were scanned simultaneously with conventional ultrasound and SASB using a commercial ultrasound scanner and abdominal transducer. SASB allows implementation of the synthetic aperture technique on systems with restricted data handling capabilities due to a reduction in the data rate in the scanner by a factor of 64. The image quality is potentially maintained despite the data reduction. A total of 117 sequences were recorded and evaluated blinded by five radiologists from a clinical perspective. Forty-eight percent of the evaluations were in favor of SASB, 33% in favor of conventional ultrasound and 19 % were equal, that is, a clear, but non-significant trend favoring SASB over conventional ultrasound (p = 0.18), despite the substantial data reduction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: pdmhansen@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Peter Møller
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hemmsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brandt
authors.affiliation: Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Theis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Paul Suno
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Krohn
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Vascular Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lönn
authors.affiliation: Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jørgen Arendt
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Michael Bachmann
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Nielsen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Clinical evaluation; Liver tumors; Synthetic aperture sequential beamforming; Ultrasound imaging