Ultrasonic Diagnostic Imaging System Research Articles

Variability in Cross-Sectional Muscle Atrophy: Insights From the Central Rectus Femoris.

This study aimed to evaluate the non-uniformity of cross-sectional areas in atrophic musclesusing the central aponeurosis (CA) as a marker for the central region of the rectus femoris (RF). We enrolled 51 consecutively admitted patients (102 limbs) with aortic valve stenosis who were scheduled for elective surgical or catheter-based aortic valve replacement and were expected to have low physical activity-induced muscle atrophy. We obtained short-axis images of the mid-thigh using an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system (with a 5-cm-wide probe) and measured the deviation of the central region of the rectus femoris from the body surface. Muscle thickness was measured using conventional morphological measurements on the body surface ("On Surface") and landmarks within the ultrasonographic image ("In Images"). Displacements ≥ 1.5 cm were observed in 56 (54.9%) limbs, and displacements ≥ 2.5 cm were observed in 34 (33%) limbs. The displacements were predominantly in the medial direction and ranged from 4 cm to 1.5 cm. Among the cases in which the deviation was ≥2.5 cm, "On Surface" measurements resulted in images in which the vastus lateralis overlapped with the rectus femoris. The thickness of the rectus femoris was significantly lower with "On Surface" measurements than with "In Images" measurements (right, p < 0.001; left, p = 0.007), with a maximum difference of 10.5 mm. In conclusion, it was observed that the rectus femoris at the center was often displaced medially, and the muscle thickness was thinner at the edge than at the center, showing a non-uniform morphology.

Sonographic evaluation of renal changes among drug-dependent and drug-naive adult patients with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in Kano, Nigeria

Context: Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) remains a major challenge globally. HIVassociated nephropathy is the third most common cause of endstage renal failure and more prevalent among AfricanAmericans with HIV compared with other races. Aims: This study evaluated sonographic renal changes in drugdependent and drugnaive patients with HIV/AIDS in Kano, Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A prospective and comparative study involving 190 each of drugdependent and drugnaive patients were conducted. Renal sonography was performed using digital ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system, equipped with a 3.5 MHz curvilinear transducer. Statistical analysis used: An independent ttest and Mann–Whitney Utest were used to compare the renal volume and mean rank of the renal parenchymal echogenicity between drugdependent and drugnaive patients. Statistical significance was considered at P

The prediction of fetal maturity and gestational age by ultrasonic measurement of distal femoral epiphyseal secondary ossification center

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the diameters of the distal femoral epiphyseal secondary ossification center (DFOC) in the various gestational ages (GAs) as well as to create a novel equation, through which GA can be calculated from the measurement of DFOC. Materials and Methods: EDAN Digital ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system (model DUS 3 made by EDAN, Korea) and a 3.5MHz Convex transducer were used for the sonographic measurement. Ultrasonographic examinations were performed on 999 normal singleton pregnancies with GAs ranging from the 28th to the 41st weeks. Patients were recruited from the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to Assurance Medical Diagnostic Center, where the ultrasonographic examinations were carried out. Images of the long axis of the fetal femur were taken. The DFOC was visualized as a small echogenic, ovoid structure lying adjacent to the distal femur. Three measurements of the DFOC diameter (in mm) were taken from outer to outer margins, and the largest diameter was recorded. Other measurements obtained include femur length, abdominal circumference biparietal diameter, head circumference, fetal weight (FW), and GA. Results: DFOC increased with GA. A strong positive relationship was observed between DFOC and GA with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.85. DFOC also increased with FW with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.83. The equation (GA = 30.84 + [1.25 × DFOC in mm]) relates GA to DFOC. Conclusion: The diameter of the distal femoral epiphyseal secondary ossification center is a useful parameter for estimating GA and assessment of fetal maturity in the third trimester.

견관절 등척성 수축을 동반한 복부 드로우-인 기법이 젊은 성인의 복근 두께에 미치는 효과

This study was conducted in order to examine whether abdominal draw-in maneuver (ADIM) with isometric shoulder flexion, extension, adduction, and abduction selectively contracted deep abdominal muscles. This study's subjects were 13 males 17 females. In order to evaluate the comparison of effects of ADIM and ADIM with isometric shoulder flexion, extension, adduction and abduction, measurements were made on transverse abdominis (TrA), internal oblique (IO), and external oblique (EO) using a real-time ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system. Each position was repetitively measured three times with a real-time ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and their mean values were used for analysis. The ADIM with isometric shoulder flexion, extension, adduction and abduction significantly increased the thickness of TrA relative to the ADIM only (p<.05). The ADIM with isometric shoulder abduction significantly increased the thickness of IO compared to the ADIM only (p<.05). The ADIM with isometric shoulder extension and abduction significantly decreased the thickness of EO compared to the ADIM only and the ADIM with isometric shoulder extension significantly decreased the thickness of EO relative to the ADIM with isometric shoulder adduction (p<.05). ADIM with isometric shoulder abduction is an effective method to selectively strengthen deep abdominal muscles and therefore may be employed as an intervention for trunk stabilization.

GENERATION OF STANDARD PROTOCOLS FOR REVIEW OF 3D ULTRASOUND IMAGE DATA

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system (10) is described which records expert, review of a 3D image data set,, including image plane and view manipulation (36), annotation, and measurements, for the purpose of generating automated review protocols for 3D ultrasound image acquisitions. The ability to provide a standardised 3D review protocol has benefits such as guiding reviewers of all experience levels through the required steps to extract, key images and measurements from 3D image data, enabling automation to improve 3D review workflow and reduce review time, monitoring growth or therapy, and standardizing review presentations for easy comparison with prior examination results.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL HARMONIC ULTRASOUND IMAGING

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are described which produce tissue harmonic images containing both fundamental and harmonic frequency components. Such a blended image takes advantage of the performance possible with the two types of ultrasonic echo information and can advantageously reduce near field clutter while improving signal to noise performance in the far field of the image.

RETROSPECTIVE DYNAMIC TRANSMIT FOCUSING FOR SPATIAL COMPOUNDING

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system transmits a plurality of focused beams normal to the plane of a transducer aperture and receives multiple receive lines in response to each transmitted beam. Sub-apertures of the transducer aperture are defined by apodization and signals of the sub-apertures are aligned and combined to produce signals exhibiting the effect of transmit steering at different angles with respect to the sub-apertures. The steered signals are detected and the detected signals relating to common points in an image field are combined. The combined detected signals are used to produce an ultrasound image with reduced speckle.

LINEAR ARRAY ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER WITH VARIABLE PATCH BOUNDARIES

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system has a two dimensional array arranged in multiple patches of multiple transducer elements. Each patch of transducer elements is coupled to a group of microbeamformer delay lines having outputs which can be coupled to a selected channel of a system beamformer, which beamforms the partially summed beams of each patch into a final beamformed signal. The ability to direct a delayed signal from a transducer element to a selected beamformer channel enables the patch boundaries to be changed as the aperture is translated across the array.

ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS OF MYOCARDIAL SYNCHRONIZATION

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging method and system are described for detecting abnormalities in the synchronicity of heart wall stimulation. Points on opposite sides of a chamber of the heart are identified in a starting ultrasound image, then tracked through at least a portion of the heart cycle. The changing positions of lines extending between pairs of the points are accumulated and displayed in a color kinesis display in which each color depicts the location of a line at a particular point in the cardiac cycle. In an illustrated example the points are tracked through the cardiac cycle by speckle tracking of the speckle pattern of the adjacent myocardial tissue, tracking specific anatomy, or tracking tissue texture.

Contrast sensitivity function and extraocular muscles thickness in patients with early stage Graves’ ophthalmopathy

The aim of this study was to determine the value of the ultrasonography measurements of extraocular muscles in early stage Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) and compare the contrast sensitivity function in patients and healthy control eyes. We examined 25-65 years old patients with early stage GO (20 eyes) and age matched healthy subjects (16 eyes). All participants underwent complete ophthalmic examination. The measurements of rectus extraocular muscles were performed by A/B mode MentorTM Advent ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system. We evaluated thickness (mm) of each extraocular muscle, compared with normal values, calculated the sum of the muscles thickness in a given eye. Contrast sensitivity (CS) was assessed by a Ginsburg Functional Acuity Contrast Test (FACT, Vision Sciences Research Corp.) chart, under day and night lighting conditions at five spatial frequencies (cpd). Inferior rectus muscle enlargement (thickness &ge; 3,6 mm) was found in 14 eyes (70 percent) of patients, p=0.008. Patients CS results differ significantly&nbsp; from those of the control group (p&lt;0.05; power 0.65-0.87), except the 6 cpd range under night lighting conditions (p=NS). The relation between the sum of the muscles thickness and CS thresholds are pronounced for the medium (6cpd) and high (12cpd) spatial frequency ranges (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.6, p=0.032 and 0.7; p=0.012, respectively). Even if visual acuity was intact and proptosis was not pronounced, CS impairment and extraocular muscles enlargement were detected in patients with early stage of GOhttp://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.u.66.3.658

Guidance Of Invasive Medical Devices By Three Dimensional Ultrasonic Imaging

A three dimensional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is operated to guide or observe the operation of an invasive medical device (30) in three dimensions. An interventional system (20) is used to operate the invasive medical device (30) and produces spatially-based information relating to the activity of the invasive medical device (30). The spatially-based information from the interventional system (20) is merged into the three dimensional ultrasonic image data to produce a live three dimensional image of the invasive medical device (30) or its activity. In one embodiment the locations where the activity of the invasive medical device (30) is performed is recorded and displayed in the three dimensional ultrasonic image. The three dimensional ultrasonic image may be shown as an anatomical volume rendered image or as a wire frame model (130) of the anatomy. In another embodiment an integrated three dimensional ultrasonic imaging and invasive device system is described.

Flow Spectrograms Synthesized From Ultrasonic Flow Color Doppler Information

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are described by which a user can delineate a region of interest ( 122, 128 ) in a colorflow Doppler image. The ultrasound system processes the Doppler pixel information of the region of interest ( 122, 128 ) to produce a spectrogram illustrating motion at the region of interest ( 122, 128 ) as a function of time. In a preferred embodiment the Doppler pixel information is processed by histograms to produce the spectrogram data.

Colorflow biplane ultrasonic imaging system and method

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described in which two planes of a volumetric region which are in different elevation planes are scanned in real time. In one embodiment the two planes are scanned with less than the maximum number of scanlines which the transducer can transmit in a single plane. A user control enables the two planes to be moved laterally without moving the transducer probe. In another embodiment each image plane contains a color box depicting flow or motion in the same respective position in the image. The color boxes of the two images can be sized and positioned in tandem so that both are in the same corresponding area of the two images.

Guidance of invasive medical devices by wide view three dimensional ultrasonic imaging

A three dimensional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is operated to guide or observe the operation of an invasive medical device (30) in three dimensions. The invasive medical device (30) is shown in a detailed ultrasonic image and the balance of the volumetric region (120) in which the device is located is shown in a wide field of view. The detailed and wide fields of view may be displayed separately or overlapping in spatial alignment on an image display (18). The wide field of view may be shown in two or three dimensions. A quantified display may be shown together with the wide and detailed anatomical displays. The detailed view may also be shown in an enlarged or zoomed format.

Ultrasonic spatial compounding with multiple simultaneous beam transmission

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are described in which spatially compounded images are produced by transmitting ultrasound beams in different directions during a common transmit-receive interval. Echoes are received from the different beam directions and are beamformed by a multiline beamformer to produce differently steered beams of coherent echo signals. The echoes are combined on a spatial basis with echoes from different look directions which correspond to the same spatial location being combined. The resulting spatially compounded image is displayed.

A multimode sonic and ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system with application to peripheral vascular characterization

Ultrasound (US) medical imaging technology is enhanced by integrating a simultaneous noninvasive audible frequency measurement of biological sounds that could be indicative of pathology. Measurement of naturally-occurring biological acoustic phenomena can augment conventional imaging technology by providing unique information about material structure and system function. Sonic phenomena of diagnostic value are associated with a wide range of biological functions, such as breath sounds, bowel sounds, and vascular bruits. The initial focus of this multimode technology was to provide an improved diagnostic tool for common peripheral vascular complications that result in transitional or turbulent blood flow, such as associated with arteriovenous (AV) grafts and stenoses in common carotid and other arteries due to plaque buildup. We review: (1) the development the multimode system by combining a commercial US system with a novel sonic sensor array and associated instrumentation, and (2) the evaluation of its capability via controlled phantom models of basic subsurface sound sources/structures, as well as simulations of constricted peripheral blood vessels. [Work supported by NIH EB002511 and HL55296, and Whitaker Foundation BME RG 01-0198.]

Synthetically focused ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for tissue and flow imaging

A synthetic focus ultrasound system is described in which individual transducer elements are activated to insonify the image field and the resultant echoes are received by a plurality of elements of the array. The echo signals are stored and the complete echo set is used to produce motion maps for different velocity vectors over the image field. Various ones of the motion maps are used to produce a wide variety of ultrasound image modes, including grey-scale images, colorflow images, and spectral flow displays.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for low flow rate contrast agents

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are presented to determine low rates of blood flow using contrast agents. Pairs of differently modulated pulses are transmitted in several beam directions to acquire echoes which can be combined to separate harmonic frequencies by pulse inversion. The pulses of each pair are transmitted in rapid succession to minimize motional artifacts. The transmission in the different beam directions is time-interleaved, resulting in the sampling of each beam direction over a long ensemble time for the detection of low rates of flow.

Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging with elevation biplane images

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system is described in which two planes of a volumetric region which are in different elevation planes are scanned in real time. In one embodiment the two planes are scanned in the sector format with a common apex, causing corresponding depths of the two images to be separated by the same distance in elevation. In another embodiment one image plane has a fixed orientation with respect to the imaging probe and the location of the other image plane can be adjusted by the user.

System and method of dynamic automatic sensing of available dynamic range

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system processes echo information signals by means of detecting, for different regions of the patient's anatomy, the actual noise present for that particular examination, under existing environmental conditions, and in imaging system itself. The noise detected is used to create an actual noise signature for the actual noise present in that particular examination under existing environmental conditions and in the imaging system itself, and the noise signature is used to maximize available dynamic range to create the highest resolution scan images possible while rejecting noise. In a preferred embodiment the dynamic range and noise rejection level are varied for different regions of a patient's anatomy as a function of all scanning coordinates being used, including varying depths, steering angles, and linear positions for both sector-type and linear-type scans.