PhD position in cardiac ultrasound engineering

작업 내용

(ref. BAP-2024-1)

Laatst aangepast: 04/01/24

Project

Developments of fast ultrasound imaging methodologies (i.e. >1000Hz) have enabled to monitor the propagation of shear waves in soft tissues. Interestingly, in bulk media, the shear wave speed can directly be coupled to the elastic modulus implying that non-invasive, quantitative measurements of tissue stiffness can be made. Although this methodology has been introduced about 2 decades ago and although it has been successfully applied to diagnose and stage e.g. liver disease, translation of this methodology to the heart has been slow. The main reasons for this are both technical and biomechanical in nature as inducing shear waves in the heart is not straight forward nor is fast imaging of these waves. In addition, the myocardial wall is bounded which complicates wave physics significantly and therefore data interpretation. Nevertheless, the clinical potential of assessing myocardial stiffness non-invasively is tremendous and would revolutionize the assessment of systolic and diastolic cardiac function both of which are cornerstones in clinical decision-making. The aim of this project is therefore to further develop and validate cardiac shear wave imaging.

The PhD candidate will be responsible for the optimization of a cardiac shear wave scan sequence on our experimental ultrasound platform; to test its acoustics safety in an acoustic measurement bench and to validate the sequence experimentally in(dynamic) mock models of the heart. The candidate will work in close collaboration with medical specialists in order to validate the technology in experimental models and to support its translation into the clinical setting.

Medical aspects of the project will supervised by prof. Voigt from the division of Cardiology of the University Hospital Leuven (www.uzleuven.be) while the technical aspects will be followed-up by prof. D’hooge of the Lab on Cardiovascular Imaging & Dynamics of the department of Cardiovascular Sciences of the University of Leuven (www.kuleuven.be). Daily activities will take place in the Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC; https://mirc.uzleuven.be/MedicalImagingCenter), a multi-disciplinary research institute where around 100 researchers work on fundamental and translational research in the area of medical imaging and image processing. You will be interacting with clinician researchers, familiar with the conditions and clinical imaging of the heart.

Profiel

• You have a MSc degree in physics or engineering
• You are familiar with ultrasound imaging and its applications
• You have good programming skills in Matlab and are familiar with LabView
• You have experience with building experimental setups
• You are fluent in oral and written English
• You are enthusiastic and result oriented
• You are a team player and communicate well
  
  

Aanbod

We offer a 4-year PhD position with market conform wages in a large, multidisciplinary research center in the heart of Europe. The position is immediately available.

Interesse

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Jan D’hooge, tel.: +32 16 32 29 40, mail: jan.dhooge@kuleuven.be or Mrs. Annette Caenen, tel.: +32 16 32 09 38, mail: annette.caenen@kuleuven.be.

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