Data Analysis for Detecting Intracranial Hemorrhage Using Ultrasound Tissue Pulsatility Imaging

Abstract

A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a type of injury that affects how the brain functions. TBI can lead to short-term problems or more long-term severe problems including various types of intracranial hemorrhage, some of which can even result in death. For this reason, finding ways of detecting intracranial hemorrhages early in patients can help to provide faster, more appropriate care, potentially improving patient outcomes. While CT and MRI are more traditional methods of diagnosing intracranial hemorrhage, they have certain drawbacks which ultrasound imaging can overcome. This work utilizes data collected from experiments on TBI patients using an ultrasound technique known as Tissue Pulsatility Imaging (TPI), specifically displacement data of brain and other tissues over the cardiac cycle. The aim of this research is to use such data to understand the differences between healthy brain displacement and brain displacement of TBI patients (with dangerous bleeding in their brain). In addition, we explore if and how the identification of the points of maximum and minimum displacement can be used to further aid in the identification of intracranial hemorrhage. The identification of these displacement points has emerged as a significant objective in this study, as they hold the potential to uncover crucial distinctions between states of wellness and illness. Furthermore, their utility in future research lies in assessing the consistency of these discoveries when applied to a broader dataset.