CN-121987248-A - Intestinal ultrasonic method for evaluating ulcerative colitis disease activity

Abstract

The invention discloses an intestinal ultrasonic method for evaluating the disease activity of ulcerative colitis, which comprises the following steps of obtaining a B-mode ultrasonic image of a target colon intestinal section of a subject, identifying and positioning the target colon intestinal section based on the B-mode image, carrying out ultrasonic viscoelastography on the positioned target colon intestinal section, synchronously obtaining and displaying a viscoelastography data graph of the target colon intestinal section and the B-mode image, extracting at least one viscoelastography parameter reflecting the mechanical characteristics of tissues from the viscoelastography data graph, and determining the disease activity level of the ulcerative colitis based on the at least one viscoelastography parameter.

Inventors

• JIANG LIXIN
• YAO YIJING
• Fang Shuxin
• WU MINGTAI

Assignees

• 上海交通大学医学院附属仁济医院

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20260226

Claims (10)

1. 1. An intestinal ultrasound method for assessing ulcerative colitis disease activity, comprising the steps of: Acquiring a B-mode ultrasonic image of a target colon segment of a subject, and identifying and positioning the target colon segment based on the B-mode image; Performing ultrasonic viscoelasticity imaging on the positioned target colon intestine section, and synchronously acquiring and displaying a viscoelasticity data graph and the B-mode image of the target colon intestine section; extracting at least one viscoelastic parameter reflecting mechanical properties of the tissue from the viscoelastic data map; a disease activity level of the ulcerative colitis is determined based on the at least one viscoelastic parameter.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one viscoelastic parameter comprises a young's modulus value and a shear wave dispersion value.
3. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the extracting step comprises setting a region of interest within a region of the intestinal wall of the target colon segment, and calculating an average Young's modulus value and an average shear wave dispersion value within the region of interest.
4. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of determining a disease activity level comprises comparing the average Young's modulus value and/or the average shear wave dispersion value to a predetermined threshold and determining an activity level based on the comparison.
5. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined threshold is determined by subject work profile analysis based on clinical data of a population of ulcerative colitis patients.
6. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the disease activity level comprises weighting and fusing the extracted at least two viscoelastic parameters to calculate a comprehensive activity score, and determining the activity level based on the activity score.
7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least two viscoelastic parameters comprise young's modulus values and shear wave dispersion values, and the weighted fusion further comprises combining intestinal wall thickness and intestinal wall blood flow classification indicators obtained from the target colon intestinal segment.
8. 8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the target colon segment is the sigmoid colon.
9. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the ultrasound viscoelastic imaging is shear wave elastography or/and shear wave frequency dispersion analysis.
10. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the method is performed by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus equipped with a shear wave imaging function.

Description

Intestinal ultrasonic method for evaluating ulcerative colitis disease activity Technical Field The invention relates to the technical field of medical images, in particular to an intestinal ultrasonic method for evaluating the disease activity of ulcerative colitis. Background Ulcerative colitis (Ulcerative Colitis, UC) is a chronic, recurrent inflammatory bowel disease, whose accurate judgment of disease activity is critical to guide clinical treatment decisions, evaluate efficacy, and predict prognosis. Currently, the gold standard for assessing UC disease activity is colonoscopy in combination with pathology biopsy. However, colonoscopy is invasive, patient compliance is poor, and there is a risk of intestinal bleeding, perforation, etc., which is not suitable for frequent practice. Serological and fecal markers (e.g., C-reactive protein, fecal calprotectin), while non-invasive, are less specific and do not provide local information about the lesion. Traditional ultrasound (gray scale ultrasound and color doppler ultrasound) has been applied to the evaluation of UC, mainly by observing the indices of intestinal wall thickness, intestinal wall delamination, blood flow signals, etc. However, these indicators have the problems of strong subjectivity, lack of uniform standards, limited sensitivity to submucosal lesions, and the like. Ultrasound viscoelastic imaging techniques (such as shear wave elastography and shear wave frequency dispersion analysis) can reflect both the elasticity and viscosity of tissue, but there is no systematic way to assess UC activity. Thus, there is an urgent need for a non-invasive, objective, quantitative method of assessing ulcerative colitis disease activity. Disclosure of Invention The invention aims to solve the problem that a method for noninvasively, objectively and quantitatively evaluating the disease activity of ulcerative colitis is lacking in the prior art. For this purpose, the invention provides an evaluation method based on intestinal ultrasonic viscoelastography. An intestinal ultrasound method of assessing ulcerative colitis disease activity comprising the steps of: Acquiring a B-mode ultrasonic image of a target colon segment of a subject, and identifying and positioning the target colon segment based on the B-mode image; Performing ultrasonic viscoelasticity imaging on the positioned target colon intestine section, and synchronously acquiring and displaying a viscoelasticity data graph and the B-mode image of the target colon intestine section; extracting at least one viscoelastic parameter reflecting mechanical properties of the tissue from the viscoelastic data map; a disease activity level of the ulcerative colitis is determined based on the at least one viscoelastic parameter. In some embodiments, the at least one viscoelastic parameter comprises a young's modulus value and a shear wave dispersion value. In some embodiments, the extracting step includes setting a region of interest within an intestinal wall region of the target colon intestinal segment, and calculating an average Young's modulus value and an average shear wave dispersion value within the region of interest. In some embodiments, the step of determining the disease activity level comprises comparing the average Young's modulus value and/or the average shear wave dispersion value with a preset threshold value and determining the activity level based on the comparison. In some embodiments, the preset threshold is determined by subject work profile analysis based on clinical data of a population of ulcerative colitis patients. In some embodiments, the step of determining the disease activity level comprises weighting and fusing the extracted at least two viscoelastic parameters, calculating a comprehensive activity score, and determining the activity level based on the activity score. In some embodiments, the at least two viscoelastic parameters comprise a young's modulus value and a shear wave dispersion value, and the weighted fusion further comprises combining intestinal wall thickness and intestinal wall blood flow classification indicators obtained from the target colon intestinal segment. In some embodiments, the target colon segment is the sigmoid colon. In some embodiments, the ultrasonic viscoelastic imaging is shear wave elastography or/and shear wave frequency dispersion analysis. In some embodiments, the method is performed by an ultrasonic diagnostic device equipped with shear wave imaging functionality. The intestinal ultrasound method for assessing ulcerative colitis disease activity disclosed herein may have beneficial effects including, but not limited to: 1. the noninvasive, objective and quantitative disease activity evaluation is realized, and the convenience and reliability of clinical diagnosis and treatment are remarkably improved. In order to solve the core problems that the existing colonoscopy is strong in invasiveness, great in pain of patients and incapable of being