In vivo super-resolution imaging of vasa vasorum in rabbit atherosclerotic plaque model using deconvolution-based localization technique

摘要

Angiogenic vasa vasorum (VV) is an important marker for atherosclerotic plaque progression and vulnerability. However, current in vivo imaging of tiny VV near a major vessel is limited. The super-resolution ultrasound imaging (SRI) can be a promising candidate. Microbubbles (MBs) localization technique for common SRI excludes signals from densely distributed MBs, requiring a large number of frames, which makes it impractical for assessing dynamic information. Here, we developed a SRI technique using deconvolution that allows localizing all MBs in a frame and therefore significantly reduces acquisition time, which enables dynamic SRI and evaluated it in vivo rabbit VV detection.