title: Discrimination between newly formed and aged thrombi using empirical mode decomposition of ultrasound B-scan image.
abstract: Ultrasound imaging is a first-line diagnostic method for screening the thrombus. During thrombus aging, the proportion of red blood cells (RBCs) in the thrombus decreases and therefore the signal intensity of B-scan can be used to detect the thrombus age. To avoid the effect of system gain on the measurements, this study proposed using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) of ultrasound image as a strategy to classify newly formed and aged thrombi. Porcine blood samples were used for the in vitro induction of fresh and aged thrombi (at hematocrits of 40%). Each thrombus was imaged using an ultrasound scanner at different gains (15, 20, and 30 dB). Then, EMD of ultrasound signals was performed to obtain the first and second intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), which were further used to calculate the IMF-based echogenicity ratio (IER). The results showed that the performance of using signal amplitude of B-scan to reflect the thrombus age depends on gain. However, the IER is less affected by the gain in discriminating between fresh and aged thrombi. In the future, ultrasound B-scan combined with the EMD may be used to identify the thrombus age for the establishment of thrombolytic treatment planning.
authors.affiliation: Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jui
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0234-1397
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan ; Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan ; Medical Imaging Research Center, Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung University and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yung-Liang
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3039-996X
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chin-Kuo
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8176-128X
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan ; Medical Imaging Research Center, Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung University and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Po-Hsiang
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5604-1800
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Tsui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013552:Swine; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000473:pathology*; D014465:Ultrasonics / Q000379:methods