Determination of a potential quantitative measure of the state of the lung using lung ultrasound spectroscopy. Issue 1 (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Demi, Libertario; Hoeve, Wim; Sloun, Ruud; Soldati, Gino; Demi, Marcello
• Is Part Of: Scientific reports. Volume 7:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 7
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Natural history -- Research -- Periodicals; Biology -- Research -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Earth sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 502.85
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13078-9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2045-2322

Abstract

Abstract B-lines are ultrasound-imaging artifacts, which correlate with several lung-pathologies. However, their understanding and characterization is still largely incomplete. To further study B-lines, lung-phantoms were developed by trapping a layer of microbubbles in tissue-mimicking gel. To simulate the alveolar size reduction typical of various pathologies, 170 and 80 µm bubbles were used for phantom-type 1 and 2, respectively. A normal alveolar diameter is approximately 280 µm. A LA332 linear-array connected to the ULA-OP platform was used for imaging. Standard ultrasound (US) imaging at 4.5 MHz was performed. Subsequently, a multi-frequency approach was used where images were sequentially generated using orthogonal sub-bands centered at different frequencies (3, 4, 5, and 6 MHz). Results show that B-lines appear predominantly with phantom-type 2. Moreover, the multi-frequency approach revealed that the B-lines originate from a specific portion of the US spectrum. These results can give rise to significant clinical applications since, if further confirmed by extensivein-vivo studies, the native frequency of B-lines could provide a quantitative-measure of the state of the lung.