Ultrasonic scattering by blood: theories, experimental results and biomedical applications

Abstract

In this paper, theoretical and experimental efforts that have been undertaken to better understand the phenomenon of ultrasonic scattering in blood will be reviewed. This subject is of interest in biology and medicine because the echoes generated by blood are used to extract blood velocity by ultrasonic Doppler flow and imaging devices. In the course of these investigations it became clear that ultrasonic scattering from blood is dependent upon such hematological and hemodynamic properties of blood as hematocrit, plasma protein concentration, flow rate and flow cycle duration. Several aspects of these experimental results have been successfully modeled by recent theoretical developments. An unexpected consequence of these efforts is that ultrasound appears to be a viable tool for blood flow visualization and hemodynamic measurements. Two unique hemodynamic phenomena that have never been reported in the hemodynamic literature have been observed: the black hole, a low echogenic zone in the center stream of whole blood flowing in a blood vessel under steady flow and the collapsing ring, an echogenic ring appearing near the periphery of a vessel at the beginning of a flow cycle, converging toward the center, and eventually collapsing during pulsatile flow. Similar observations have been made during clinical scanning of patients.