Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage

Assessment of trauma-induced hemorrhage with ultrasound is particularly challenging outside of the clinic, where its detection is crucial. The current clinical standard for hematoma detection – the focused assessment with sonography of trauma (FAST) exam – does not aim to detec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Scott Schoen Jr, Alexis Prasov, Ion Candel, Saaid Arshad, Mark Ottensmeyer, Theodore T. Pierce, Laura J. Brattain, Brian A. Telfer, Anthony E. Samir
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10561886/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849417284017192960
author Scott Schoen Jr
Alexis Prasov
Ion Candel
Saaid Arshad
Mark Ottensmeyer
Theodore T. Pierce
Laura J. Brattain
Brian A. Telfer
Anthony E. Samir
author_facet Scott Schoen Jr
Alexis Prasov
Ion Candel
Saaid Arshad
Mark Ottensmeyer
Theodore T. Pierce
Laura J. Brattain
Brian A. Telfer
Anthony E. Samir
author_sort Scott Schoen Jr
collection DOAJ
description Assessment of trauma-induced hemorrhage with ultrasound is particularly challenging outside of the clinic, where its detection is crucial. The current clinical standard for hematoma detection – the focused assessment with sonography of trauma (FAST) exam – does not aim to detect ongoing blood loss, and thus is unable to detect injuries of increasing severity. To enhance detection of active bleeding, we propose the use of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), together with a novel flow phantom and contrast-sensitive processing techniques, to facilitate efficient, practical characterization of internal bleeding. Within a the custom phantom, UCAs and processing techniques enabled a significant enhancement of the hemorrhage visualization (mean increase in generalized contrast-to-noise ratio of 17%) compared to the contrast-free case over a range of flow rates up to 40 ml/min. Moreover, we have shown that the use of UCAs improves the probability of detection: the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for a flow rate of 40 ml/min was 0.99, compared to 0.72 without contrast. We also demonstrate how additional processing of the spatial and temporal information further localizes the bleeding site. UCAs also enhanced Doppler signals over the non-contrast case. These results show that specialized nonlinear processing (NLP) pipelines together with UCAs may offer an efficient means to improve substantially the detection of slower hemorrhages and increase survival rates for trauma-induced injury in pre-hospital settings.
format Article
id doaj-art-c97a5e2c01634b07bd18fb7099565fbf
institution Kabale University
issn 2644-1276
language English
publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
spelling doaj-art-c97a5e2c01634b07bd18fb7099565fbf2025-08-20T03:32:54ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology2644-12762024-01-01587788410.1109/OJEMB.2024.341497410561886Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active HemorrhageScott Schoen Jr0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7195-2883Alexis Prasov1Ion Candel2Saaid Arshad3Mark Ottensmeyer4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8886-4556Theodore T. Pierce5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3244-0994Laura J. Brattain6Brian A. Telfer7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3534-7149Anthony E. Samir8Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USAMIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA, USACenter for Ultrasound Research and Translation, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USAMIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA, USACenter for Ultrasound Research and Translation, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USACenter for Ultrasound Research and Translation, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USAUniversity of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USAMIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA, USACenter for Ultrasound Research and Translation, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USAAssessment of trauma-induced hemorrhage with ultrasound is particularly challenging outside of the clinic, where its detection is crucial. The current clinical standard for hematoma detection – the focused assessment with sonography of trauma (FAST) exam – does not aim to detect ongoing blood loss, and thus is unable to detect injuries of increasing severity. To enhance detection of active bleeding, we propose the use of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), together with a novel flow phantom and contrast-sensitive processing techniques, to facilitate efficient, practical characterization of internal bleeding. Within a the custom phantom, UCAs and processing techniques enabled a significant enhancement of the hemorrhage visualization (mean increase in generalized contrast-to-noise ratio of 17%) compared to the contrast-free case over a range of flow rates up to 40 ml/min. Moreover, we have shown that the use of UCAs improves the probability of detection: the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for a flow rate of 40 ml/min was 0.99, compared to 0.72 without contrast. We also demonstrate how additional processing of the spatial and temporal information further localizes the bleeding site. UCAs also enhanced Doppler signals over the non-contrast case. These results show that specialized nonlinear processing (NLP) pipelines together with UCAs may offer an efficient means to improve substantially the detection of slower hemorrhages and increase survival rates for trauma-induced injury in pre-hospital settings.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10561886/Traumahemorrhagecontrast agentsultrasounddoppler
spellingShingle Scott Schoen Jr
Alexis Prasov
Ion Candel
Saaid Arshad
Mark Ottensmeyer
Theodore T. Pierce
Laura J. Brattain
Brian A. Telfer
Anthony E. Samir
Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage
IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Trauma
hemorrhage
contrast agents
ultrasound
doppler
title Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage
title_full Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage
title_fullStr Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage
title_full_unstemmed Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage
title_short Microbubble Contrast Agents Improve Detection of Active Hemorrhage
title_sort microbubble contrast agents improve detection of active hemorrhage
topic Trauma
hemorrhage
contrast agents
ultrasound
doppler
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10561886/
work_keys_str_mv AT scottschoenjr microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT alexisprasov microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT ioncandel microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT saaidarshad microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT markottensmeyer microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT theodoretpierce microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT laurajbrattain microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT brianatelfer microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage
AT anthonyesamir microbubblecontrastagentsimprovedetectionofactivehemorrhage