PI: Dr. E. Gratacós
Funding Agency: European Commission VII Framework Programme
Duration: 2008-2012
uVolumes will address a major unsolved issue in ultrasound (US) techniques in medicine: the delimitation of irregular volumes and evaluation of tissue characteristics and perfusion. The ability to obtain this invaluable clinical information is significantly developed in other imaging modalities, such as MRI, but they appear still remote for US-based techniques. Like in many other pathological processes, brain disease is characterized by changes in the physical properties or in the blood perfusion received by tissues. The ability to assess non-invasively these essential pieces of information is key to understanding the mechanisms of disease and to early diagnose brain damage in clinical practice.
FCRB is an interdisciplinary group conducting advanced research in fetal brain development and prediction of damage during perinatal life. FCRB has developed novel US-based techniques in two dimensions (2D) for tissue density and perfusion in different fetal and neonatal brain regions. A next goal is to transpose these algorithms for from 2D-sections to 3D volumes, but this process is still extremely time-consuming and unreliable. Basic template methods must be brought to automated methods to be applicable in clinical practice, and 3D analysis requires using the algorithms directly on acoustic information, in exponentially more complex systems.
Siemens is a company with the know-how and technological capacity with a large experience developing and validating prototypes in close relation to the medical partners The company has the technological capabilities to solve most of these bottlenecks but so far these solutions have been individual achievements, lacking the necessary integration to become real clinical solutions. On the other hand, interaction with a clinical research group is required to further refine the prototypes that might be generated after integration