Master's thesis and projects

Master's thesis and projects

– Ultrasound technology

The Department of circulation and medical imaging offers projects and master's thesis topics for technology students of most of the different technical study programmes at NTNU. There is a seperate page for the supplementary specialisation courses.

List of topics

Topics for thesis and projects are given below. Most of the topics can be adjusted to the students qualifications and wishes.

Don't hesitate to take contact with the corresponding supervisor - we're looking forward to a discussion with you!

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null Patient Adaptive Imaging in Echocardiography

Patient Adaptive Imaging in Echocardiography

Ultrasound imaging is the leading, and most cost effective, diagnostic and clinical assessment tool for heart disease and is extensively used globally in both diagnostic work and patient follow-ups.

Ultrasound imageDue to technical development, general image quality of echocardiograms has improved in the last 20 years, yielding better diagnostic capabilities in the clinics. Still, echocardiograms are dependent on the specific anatomy of each patient, and image quality varies considerably from patient-to-patient.

In roughly 20% of the patients, image quality is of such poor quality that diagnosis and follow-up is very challenging. In the worst cases, patients cannot be assessed by ultrasound at all, and must be referred to other imaging modalities for proper assessment of cardiac function. In the rest of the patient population image quality is good but could still be improved leading to more robust evaluation of left ventricle function, e.g. ejection fraction and deformation analyses (wall motion scoring, global longitudinal strain).

Testimonials from the ultrasound industry also points to varying image quality in different health regions, e.g. echocardiograms in the USA is generally of poorer quality than in Europe, most probably due to a larger population with high body mass index.

The most advanced modern ultrasound scanners are now capable of using data from the patients to adapt image quality to the individual patients and new techniques are emerging from research into this topic. The main principle is that parameters are estimated for each image recorded and fed into the systems image forming processing chain to optimize image quality. This can lead to significant improvement in image quality for individual patients.

This project will in detail look into methods surrounding coherence imaging (see figure). The project is a collaboration with the Norwegian company GE Vingmed Ultrasound (GEVU), the world leading producer of echocardiographic ultrasound systems and the candidate will participate in regular research and update meetings with a team at NTNU and GEVU.

This project relates to acoustics and signal processing and students should preferably have a background from mathematics, biophysics or signal processing. Having followed ultrasound courses taught by the Department of Circulation and Medical imaging is preferable.

Aim:

  • Develop patient adaptive imaging coherence imaging techniques for improved image quality

Requirements:

  • The student should be familiar with medical ultrasound (have followed courses in this topic) and signal processing.

Contact: