Motion Correction In Coronary Ultrasound Localization Microscopy

3D mapping of the coronary microcirculation using Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (3D corULM) was recently demonstrated in beating rat hearts [1]. In that work, images of the beating heart were acquired covering several cardiac cycles. Microvasculature was obtained with the accumulation of localized microbubbles at the diastolic phase [2]. However, the quality of final vessel reconstruction was affected by the motion between diastolic intervals due to beating movement during acquisition. We propose a motion correction approach that enhances image quality and quantification accuracy of 3D corULM. [1] O. Demeulenaere, et al., Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging, vol. 22, 2021. [2] C. Errico, et al., Nature 527, 2015.