Biomedical subjects

Jenho Tsao

Publications and source records attributed to Jenho Tsao.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

An ultrasonic microbubble semi-intermodulated imaging technique.

The performance of contrast imaging technique is critically influenced by some factors, such as spatial resolution, agent-to-tissue ratio, lifetime of contrast agents and attenuation effect. By using a transducer with higher frequency and higher bandwidth of transmitted signals, the spatial resolution can be improved. Similarly, a better signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) can improve the agent-to-tissue ratio, a lower transmission pressure can prolong the lifetime of contrast agents and a lower center frequency can diminish the attenuation effect. We extend the two-frequency analytic solutions of to approximate the short-pulse responses of microbubbles in a low-amplitude field. Based on their results, there is an expected component near 0 Hz in the spectrum of bubble echoes excited by a short pulse of ultrasound. Here, this component is called the low-frequency response; and it is shown to have a special bandwidth-dependent property and to have potential applications in imaging. We have established the procedure of semi-intermodulated (low-frequency) imaging and the effects of the attenuation effect on imaging resolution, SIR, and signal-to-noise ratio are also analyzed. The obtained experimental images demonstrate that the SIR in semi-intermodulated imaging is better than that in fundamental imaging under various attenuation conditions.

Contrast Media↗

PubMed2004

Factor analysis in both spatial and temporal domains of color blooming artifacts in ultrasound investigations utilizing contrast agents.

Color blooming artifacts can cause misinterpretations of normal and pathological structures during color Doppler flow imaging with ultrasound contrast agents (USCAs). These artifacts are characterized in both the spatial and temporal domains: in the spatial domain, artifacts result from wave propagation and the ultrasound system; and in the temporal domain, the color blooming time (CBT) is used to denote the duration of artifacts. In our experiments, CBT decreased from 86.7 to 46.8 s when the transmitting pressure was decreased from 370 to 180 kPa. From this, we conclude that an adaptive mechanical index can significantly shorten the CBT, which may in turn prolong the optimal viewing time during in vivo ultrasound investigations utilizing USCAs.

Artifacts↗

PubMed2004

Aperture size effect on ultrasonic wavefront distortion correction.

The influences of aperture size on wavefront distortion correction are investigated both theoretically and numerically. A multilayer, phase-screen model is assumed to be the underlying, distorting medium. Numerical simulations were performed using three wavefront distortion correction methods: time-shift compensation (TSC), backpropagation followed by time-shift compensation (BP+TSC), and the previously proposed, multilayer, phase-screen compensation (MPSC) method. The distorted wavefronts were generated by propagating a planar wavefront through a multilayer, phase-screen model constructed with a two-dimensional (2-D) scanned map of a real abdominal slice. Performances were evaluated by L2 errors between the corrected wavefronts and the undistorted planar wavefront. Point spread functions also were calculated to evaluate the relative image quality. Theoretical analysis shows L2 error will decrease as aperture size grows when exact phase compensation (EPC) is applied, although finite errors will always exist along the edges of the corrected wavefront. Three different aperture sizes, 14.24 mm (64 elements), 28.48 mm (128 elements), and 56.96 mm (256 elements) are considered in this study. Numerical results show that the quality of wavefront with EPC is essentially limited by the aperture size, and the correction methods considered are relatively robust against the aperture size. It also shows that, for low aberration, results with MPSC and EPC are comparable. However, for high aberration, MPSC significantly outperforms EPC in suppression of L2 error and sidelobes. This study suggests that, for most medical ultrasound imaging systems, the exact structure of the distorting medium may not be necessary to be known a priori for optimal distortion correction because of the limitation imposed by finite aperture size.

Abdomen↗

PubMed2003

Volume scattering of distributed microbubbles and its influence on blood flow estimation.

In recent years, microbubble contrast agents have become a potential adjunct in Doppler ultrasound diagnosis. In this paper, we show that volume scattering makes the effective band in Doppler spectrum shift downward after injection of microbubbles. Because the insonified volume comprises a collection of distributed microbubbles, the statistical properties such as the autocorrelation function and ensemble average power spectrum of the echoes from a collection of distributed microbubbles were derived first. It can be observed that, beyond a critical frequency, the theoretical volume backscattering cross section derived from the ensemble average power spectrum of microbubbles decreases with frequency. On the contrary, the volume backscattering cross section of red cells increases with frequency. Using two-dimensional (2-D) Fourier transform, the variation in Doppler spectrum caused by different volume backscattering cross section can be demonstrated, and the consequential downward shifts of the estimated Doppler parameters (e.g., the mean and maximum Doppler shifts, and the variance of Doppler power spectrum) after microbubble injection are shown. In addition, it can be observed that the variation gets larger as the transmitted bandwidth increases. And, the variations in Doppler parameters estimated with experimental data are presented to verify the theoretical deviations.

Blood Flow Velocity↗

PubMed2003

The ultrasonic weak short-pulse responses of microbubbles based on a two-frequency approximation.

The ultrasonic short-pulse responses of microbubbles are of interest in cavitation, transient responses, and contrast imaging. We extend the two-frequency analytic solutions of Newhouse and Shankar [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 75, 1473-1477 (1984)] to approximate the short-pulse responses of microbubbles in a low-amplitude field. Based on their results, there is an expected component near dc in the spectrum of bubble echoes excited by a short pulse. Here this component is named the low-frequency response, and its theoretical properties are verified experimentally. Including the fundamental and second-harmonic components, the weak short-pulse responses of microbubbles include three types of response. Our work has determined the constraint conditions under which this approximated solution can be used to analyze these short-pulse responses. This paper also provides the amplitude and spectral properties of these responses. The low-frequency response has a special bandwidth-dependent property and has potential applications in imaging and bubble sizing.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Analysis and correction of ultrasonic wavefront distortion based on a multilayer phase-screen model.

A model is introduced that incorporates the cumulative wavefront distortion effects caused by spatial heterogeneities along the path of propagation, and a corresponding model-based wavefront distortion-correction method is presented. In the proposed model, a distributed heterogeneous medium is lumped into a series of parallel phase screens. The distortion effects can be compensated--without a priori knowledge of the distorting structure--by backpropagation of received wavefronts through hypothetical multiple phase screens located between the imaging system and targets, while each pointwise time shift is adjusted iteratively to maximize a specified image quality factor at the final layer. Theoretical analyses indicate that the mean speckle brightness decreases monotonically with the root-mean-square value of distributed phase distortions; therefore, the speckle brightness can be used as an image quality factor. Experimental one-dimensional (1-D) array data with simulated distortion effects based on a real 2-D abdominal-tissue map were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method and existing aberration-correction techniques. The simulated characteristics of wavefront distortion and relative performance of existing correction techniques were similar to reports based on abdominal-wall data and breast data. This investigation shows that the proposed method provides better compensation for wavefront distortion.

Abdomen↗