Abstract
BACKGROUND
Neurosurgical practice still relies heavily on pre-operatively acquired images to guide tumor resections, a practice which comes with inherent pitfalls such as registration inaccuracy due to brain shift, and lack of real-time functional or morphological feedback. Here we describe functional Ultrasound (fUS) as a new high-resolution, depth-resolved, MRI/CT-registered imaging technique able to detect functional regions and vascular morphology during awake and anesthesized tumor resections.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
fUS relies on high-frame-rate (HFR) ultrasound, making the technique sensitive to very small motions caused by vascular dynamics (µDoppler) and allowing measurements of changes in cerebral blood volume (CBV) with micrometer-millisecond precision. This opens up the possibility to 1) detect functional response, as CBV-changes reflect changes in metabolism of activated neurons through neurovascular coupling, and 2) visualize in-vivo vascular morphology of pathological and healthy tissue with high resolution at unprecedented depths. During a range of anesthetized and awake neurosurgical procedures we acquired vascular and functional images of brain and spinal cord using conventional ultrasound probes connected to a research acquisition system. Building on Brainlab’s Intra-Operative Navigation modules, we co-registered our intra-operative Power Doppler Images (PDIs) to patient-registered MRI/CT-data in real-time.
RESULTS
During meningioma and glioma resections, our co-registered PDIs revealed fUS’ ability to visualize the tumor’s feeding vessels and vascular borders in real-time, with a level of detail unprecedented by conventional MRI-sequences. During awake resections, fUS was able to detect distinct, ESM-confirmed functional areas as activated during conventional motor and language tasks. In all cases, images were acquired with micrometer-millisecond (300 µm, 1.5–2.0 ms) precision at imaging depths exceeding 5 cm.
CONCLUSION
fUS is a new real-time, high-resolution and depth-resolved imaging technique, combining favorable imaging specifications with characteristics such as mobility and ease of use which are uniquely beneficial for a potential image-guided neurosurgical tool.
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