A 3D DCE-US Interconnected Voxel Analysis Framework for Bedside Characterization of Tumor Vascular Properties in Liver Malignancies

Liver cancer results in a significant number of deaths worldwide. Characterization of patient-specific tumor vasculature and perfusion at bedside can enable better, individualized treatments. We propose a reconstruction method based on a two-compartment contrast flow field model to characterize vascular properties through the analysis of 3D dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound measurements. Our inversion method determines patient-specific parameter functions by minimizing the mismatch of simulated and measured contrast concentrations. The analysis is performed on synthetic as well as experimental animal data. To assess clinical relevance, we investigate reconstruction of physiologically interpretable quantities such as arterial blood flow and perfusion.

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