Medical ultrasound (US) imaging is a popular and convenient medical imaging
modality thanks to its mobility, non-ionizing radiation, ease-of-use, and real-time data
acquisition. Conventional US brightness mode (B-Mode) is one type of diagnostic
medical imaging modality that represents tissue morphology by collecting and displaying
the intensity information of a reflected acoustic wave. Moreover, US B-Mode imaging is
frequently integrated with tracking systems and robotic systems in image-guided therapy
(IGT) systems. Recently, these systems have also begun to incorporate advanced US
imaging such as US elasticity imaging, photoacoustic imaging, and thermal imaging.
Several software frameworks and toolkits have been developed for US imaging research
and the integration of US data acquisition, processing and display with existing IGT
systems. However, there is no software framework or toolkit that supports advanced US
imaging research and advanced US IGT systems by providing low-level US data (channel
data or radio-frequency (RF) data) essential for advanced US imaging.
In this dissertation, we propose a new medical US imaging and interventional
component framework for advanced US image-guided therapy based on networkdistributed
modularity, real-time computation and communication, and open-interface
design specifications. Consequently, the framework can provide a modular research
environment by supporting communication interfaces between heterogeneous systems to
allow for flexible interventional US imaging research, and easy reconfiguration of an
entire interventional US imaging system by adding or removing devices or equipment
specific to each therapy. In addition, our proposed framework offers real-time
synchronization between data from multiple data acquisition devices for advanced
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interventional US imaging research and integration of the US imaging system with other
IGT systems. Moreover, we can easily implement and test new advanced ultrasound
imaging techniques inside the proposed framework in real-time because our software
framework is designed and optimized for advanced ultrasound research. The system’s
flexibility, real-time performance, and open-interface are demonstrated and evaluated
through performing experimental tests for several applications