Low-cost pipeline for assessing tissue remodeling and fibrosis using ultrasound

Cardiac Ultrasound Fingerprinting is an approach for high throughput extraction of myocardial features

Invention Summary:

Tissue characterization of myocardial pathology has been an area of intense research and development due to the rising incidence of cardiovascular conditions and the growing geriatric population globally. Although Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is largely used to associate myocardial imaging features with pathological assessments, its cost limits its usage.

Rutgers researchers have developed a myocardial image analysis technique called myocardial ultrasonic fingerprinting that utilizes a radiomics-based approach combined with high throughput computing on static cardiac ultrasound images. The technique allows for the extraction of information from ultrasound images and isolates quantitative features of myocardial tissue remodeling. The novel fingerprinting technique elucidates numerous features that can serve as predictors of cardiovascular pathology as well as prognostic indicators measuring treatment response. Their results indicate that radiomic-based cardiac ultrasound fingerprinting identifies high-risk features associated with left ventricular (LV) remodeling in early and advanced clinical stages of heart failure.

Market Applications:

• Cardiac ultrasound image analysis
• Use cases include detecting myocardial scar, fibrosis, high-risk coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathies, and cardiac remodeling using state-of-the-art or point-of-care ultrasound systems

Advantages:

• Does not require dense movie files for analysis – providing savings on storage space as well as cost.
• Can extract similar depth of data from ultrasound images than would traditionally require CMR scanning, which is more expensive
• Results in higher degree of precision and reliability in the detection of cardiological issues compared with traditional imaging techniques such as echocardiography.

Intellectual Property & Development Status: Patent pending. Software available for licensing and/or research collaboration. For any business development and other collaborative partnerships contactmarketingbd@research.rutgers.edu