Our contribution to the challenge with Thomas Lisson as first author finished best in the localization category and as runner-up in the localization and tracking category. 24 international groups with 53 entries in 3 categories participated in the competition.

At the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium 2022, for the first time a competition for novel high-resolution ultrasound methods of ultrasound localization microscopy was organized. Ultrasound localization microscopy was first published simultaneously by us and Michael Tanter’s group from Paris in 2011. In this method, gas-filled microbubbles, which are injected as commercial ultrasound contrast agents, are localized and tracked in the vasculature of the body with high accuracy. In this way, images of the microvessels are obtained that are well below the conventional resolution limit of ultrasound imaging of half a wavelength. The algorithms are under continuous improvements and are used in initial clinical studies as part of two DFG projects on breast cancer diagnostics and on imaging the microvessels of the kidney in cooperation with the Group of Fabian Kiessling at the University Hospital of RWTH Aachen.

The Ultra-SR served to verify the accuracy of the algorithms for localizing and tracking microbubbles using video sequences with test data sets.