Label-free super-resolution color flow imaging using ultrasound phase microscopy

Abstract

Ultrasound vascular imaging is limited by acoustic diffraction, restricting visualization of microvessels essential for understanding organ function and disease. Label-free super-resolution methods exploiting endogenous red blood cells have faced challenges in acquisition time and complexity. Here we introduce ultrasound phase microscopy (UPM), a label-free technique that achieves sub-wavelength resolution flow imaging by exploiting phase differences between consecutively beamformed frames with mismatched apodizations, without requiring localization or tracking. Validated in vivo across multiple species, organs, and ultrasound platforms, UPM attains spatial resolutions better than 5 um up to tenfold improvement over conventional color flow imaging while accelerating data acquisition by nearly two orders of magnitude compared to ultrasound localization microscopy. UPM enables rapid, high resolution vascular imaging and offers a practical approach for label-free super-resolution vascular imaging.