Portable Ultrasonic Device Research Articles

Compressed sensing for reduced hardware footprint in medical ultrasound

In this work, a compressed sensing method to reduce hardware complexity of ultrasound imaging systems is proposed and experimentally verified. We provide clinical evaluation of the method with a possible high compression rates (up to 64 RF signals compressed into a single channel on receive) which uses elastic net estimation for decoding stage. This allows a reduction in size and power consumption of the front-end electronics with only a minor loss in image quality. We demonstrate an 8-fold receive channel count reduction with a 3.16 dB and 3.64 dB mean absolute error for gallbladder and kidney images, respectively, as well as 7.4% increase in the contrast-to-noise ratio for kidney images and 0.1% loss in the contrast-to noise ratio for gallbladder images, on average. The proposed method may enable a fully portable ultrasonic device with virtually no loss in image quality as compared to a full size clinical scanner to be constructed.

The Anesthesia and Coping Strategies of Medical Care for Astronauts in Shenzhou Eleven Spaceship

To analyze the characteristics and basic principles of the medical support and anesthesia for the Shenzhou eleven astronaut landing field, and to summarize the experience of the medical care and anesthesia in the main landing field of our country, and to ensure the security tasks in the special environment such as the emergency return of manned space flight. To review the reports on the medical care and anesthesia of the astronauts at landing field, and summarize the experience of the medical care and anesthesia of the Shenzhou five to the Shenzhou ten astronaut medical support landing field, and put forward a series of organizations and prepositions on the environment characteristics of the "Shenzhou eleven" in the long time and the cold weather in the main landing field of the scheduled return time. Case, equipment and effective treatment plan, and be tested in actual combat. On the basis of the original first aid, the first aid equipment was adjusted, the first aid procedure was optimized, the heat preservation heating device was added, the laryngeal mask, the anti fog visible laryngoscope and the portable ultrasonic device were introduced, and the anesthesia and medical care plan for the manned space landing field was formulated, which was the astronaut stay in the space and the cold and complicated weather conditions. The treatment and medical care provided a strong guarantee. The first aid support scheme of the Shenzhou eleven spacecraft's main landing field was improved and optimized, and it fully met the medical security task of the special environment such as the astronaut emergency return and so on in the cold weather.

Measurement of solid suspension concentration and flow velocity with temperature compensation using a portable ultrasonic device

Ultrasonic spectroscopy is highly suitable for real-time measurement, in particular for dense particle systems. In the present study, a novel measurement device, namely a portable ultrasonic device (PUD), is designed and manufactured for measuring solid suspension concentration and flow velocity simultaneously with respect to the propagation of ultrasound waves in a solid–liquid mixture at different temperatures. A series of experiments were conducted in the laboratory to obtain the ultrasonic attenuation of kaolin and reservoir sediment solutions within a wide range of concentrations (1000–300 000 mg/L) at various temperatures (15–27°C). The resulting data were regressed to establish linear functions of attenuation and temperature for concentration. The experimental data were compared with theoretical simulated results to show the effect of particle size distribution on concentration measurement. The flow meter part of the PUD was verified by a standard-speed carriage in the towing tank. According to experimental tests by PUD, it was demonstrated that the accuracy for concentration in full scale is ±5%, and the accuracy for flow velocity is ±2%. Compared with sampled data, good agreements were also found by employing the PUD for sediment concentration and flow velocity measurements in turbidity currents during typhoon floods in a reservoir, which demonstrates that the PUD is operable and reliable on site. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor K. Heal Citation Huang, Y.J., Sung, C.C., Lai, J.S., Lee, F.Z., Hwang, G.W., and Tan, Y.C., 2013. Measurement of solid suspension concentration and flow velocity with temperature compensation using a portable ultrasonic device. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (3), 615–626.

Noninvasive Evaluation of Lower Urinary Tract Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy

The aim of this study was noninvasive evaluation of voiding function in children with cerebral palsy. Sixty children with cerebral palsy were enrolled in the study. Urinary system symptoms were recorded. Uroflowmetric tests were carried out, and postvoid residual volume was measured immediately after voiding by using a portable ultrasonic device developed for children. The expected age-related bladder capacity was calculated and compared with the observed bladder capacity. Uroflowmetric curves were evaluated and classified as normal (bell-shaped) and abnormal. Thirty-three of the children (55%) were symptomatic. In 17 (28.3%) of the children, postvoid residual urine was observed. There was a statistically significant difference between the expected bladder capacity (271.6 +/- 38.3 ml) and the observed bladder capacity (154.5 +/- 111.8 ml) (P < 0.001). Observed bladder capacity was lower than the expected bladder capacity in 56 (93.3%) of the children. In the evaluation of the uroflowmetric charts, 22 (36.7%) children had abnormal curves. Bladder capacity is decreased in most children with cerebral palsy, and postvoid residue is present in an important proportion. Uroflowmetry and portable ultrasonic device combination is a noninvasive, well-tolerated, and efficient method in the first line evaluation of lower urinary tract function in children with cerebral palsy.

Application of electronic focussing and scanning systems to ultrasonic testing

A portable ultrasonic device which performs real-time B-scan with a contact probe has been developed. This probe is an array of 128 small elements. Scanning, focussing and deflection of the ultrasonic beam are electronically achieved. The versatility of this apparatus allows characterization of defects: orientation, position, length and changes during service can be determined.

Pseudo-continuous-wave acoustic instrument

Simple, inexpensive, and portable ultrasonic device accurately measures acoustic properties of liquids, gases, and solids, using pseudo-continuous wave responses from samples to measure change in resonant frequency or amplitude in acoustic signal.