Anbarasan Thineskrishna, Démoré Christine E M, Lay Holly, Sunoqrot Mohammed R S, Poltarjonoks Romans, Cochran Sandy, Cox Benjamin F
University of Dundee School of Medicine, Wilson House, 1 Wurburg Loan, Dundee Medipark, Dundee, DD21FD, Scotland, UK.
University of Glasgow School of Engineering, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK.
Methods Mol Biol. 2017;1572:541-561. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6911-1_34.
High resolution, microultrasound (μUS) scanning of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract has potential as an important transmural imaging modality to aid in diagnosis. Operating at higher frequencies than conventional clinical ultrasound instruments, μUS is capable of providing scanned images of the GI tract with higher resolution. To investigate the use of μUS for this application, a phantom which is cost effective, within ethical guidelines and, most importantly, similar in histology to the human GI tract is necessary. Therefore, a phantom utilizing porcine small bowel tissue has been developed for custom assembled μUS scanning systems. Two such systems, a stepping scanner and a continuous sweep scanner were utilized to repeatedly scan regions of prepared samples of porcine small bowel tissue. The porcine small bowel tissue phantom was perfused with degassed phosphate buffer saline (dPBS) solution through a cannula inserted in its mesenteric vessel to simulate in vivo conditions and achieve better μUS mucosal characterization. The μUS system scans a transducer across the tissue phantom to acquire RF echo data, which is then processed using MATLAB. A B-scan reconstruction produces 2D images with relative echo strength mapped to a color map of the user's choice. The phantom developed also allows for modifications such as the insertion of fiducial markers to detect tissue change over time and simultaneous perfusion and scanning, providing a platform for more detailed research and investigation into μUS scanning of the GI tract.
胃肠道（GI）的高分辨率微超声（μUS）扫描作为一种重要的壁外成像方式，在辅助诊断方面具有潜力。μUS的工作频率高于传统临床超声仪器，能够提供更高分辨率的胃肠道扫描图像。为了研究μUS在此应用中的使用情况，需要一个符合伦理准则且成本效益高，最重要的是组织学与人类胃肠道相似的模型。因此，已开发出一种利用猪小肠组织的模型，用于定制组装的μUS扫描系统。使用了两种这样的系统，即步进扫描仪和连续扫描扫描仪，对制备好的猪小肠组织样本区域进行反复扫描。通过插入肠系膜血管的套管向猪小肠组织模型灌注脱气磷酸盐缓冲盐水（dPBS）溶液，以模拟体内条件并实现更好的μUS黏膜特征描述。μUS系统通过换能器在组织模型上扫描以获取射频回波数据，然后使用MATLAB进行处理。B扫描重建生成二维图像，其中相对回波强度映射到用户选择的颜色图上。所开发的模型还允许进行诸如插入基准标记以检测随时间的组织变化以及同时进行灌注和扫描等修改，为更详细地研究和调查胃肠道的μUS扫描提供了一个平台。
