Assessing the performance of ultrafast vector flow imaging in the neonatal heart via multiphysics modeling and In vitro experiments

Ultrafast vector flow imaging would benefit newborn patients with congenital heart disorders, but still requires thorough validation before translation to clinical practice. This paper investigates 2-D speckle tracking (ST) of intraventricular blood flow in neonates when transmitting diverging waves at ultrafast frame rate. Computational and in vitro studies enabled us to quantify the performance and identify artifacts related to the flow and the imaging sequence. First, synthetic ultrasound images of a neonate's left ventricular flow pattern were obtained with the ultrasound simulator Field II by propagating point scatterers according to 3-D intraventricular flow fields obtained with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Noncompounded diverging waves (opening angle of 60 degrees) were transmitted at a pulse repetition frequency of 9 kHz. ST of the B-mode data provided 2-D flow estimates at 180 Hz, which were compared with the CFD flow field. We demonstrated that the diastolic inflow jet showed a strong bias in the lateral velocity estimates at the edges of the jet, as confirmed by additional in vitro tests on a jet flow phantom. Furthermore, ST performance was highly dependent on the cardiac phase with low flows (< 5 cm/s), high spatial flow gradients, and out-of-plane flow as deteriorating factors. Despite the observed artifacts, a good overall performance of 2-D ST was obtained with a median magnitude underestimation and angular deviation of, respectively, 28% and 13.5 degrees during systole and 16% and 10.5 degrees during diastole

STATE OF THE ART INVESTIGATION IN MEDICAL ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTICS USING PATENT PUBLICATIONS DATABASE

Patents are now an integral part of global economy. The creation of the world trade system has also redefined the value of intellectual property protection and generated an unprecedented demand for patent protection that is no longer limited to the traditionally patent-oriented economies of Europe, Japan and the USA. Countries like China, India and Korea, and Singapore and Israel too, are just some of the new players heavily involved in patent-driven innovative competition. Patents protect technical inventions. An invention can, for example, be a product, process or apparatus. Inventions are only patentable if they are novel, industrially applicable and involve an inventive step, but even then patent protection is not granted automatically. The application must be accompanied by a full technical description of the invention, which the Office then examines for compliance with the European Patent Convention. Patents give their owners the right to prevent others from using their invention, and are thus of major economic importance. They also help to recoup research costs, allowing the inventor to reinvest in research and development. The publication requirement allows competitors to build on patented inventions and come up with even better technical solutions. In doing so, patents boost the innovation which Europe badly needs to keep up with other economies, and contribute to the further development of a knowledge society. The 56 million or so patent documents contained in the public EPO database constitute a vast trove of technical information. The field of medical device, according to European Patent Office Annual Report of 2005, is one of the technical fields with the most filings. This state of the art investigation, performed using the patent publications database, is focused on the field of diagnostic ultrasound, a field that thanks to its non ionizing nature and low cost is a very high growing area and a lot of scientific research is made. Scope of this work is to provide an useful tool that allows to check the level of the ultrasound technology and to indicate the future direction of this technique. Scope of this work is also to provide information to all the researchers and inventors who want to set out a patent procedure of an invention. As known, the patent procedure, from the filing day until the decision of granting the patent is quite expensive, this work could be used as a primary consultation tool before to present a patent application. All chapters of this work contains an introduction that explain the technical problematic of a field and in the subsequent sections the solutions are described. In the first chapter of this work the European Patent Office and the world of patents is introduced. A special attention is revolted to several articles of the EPC (European Patent Convention) and to the classification system adopted by the EPO. Some statistics about European patent application filed in 2005 are illustrated and the difference between the first to invent system adopted by EPO (and by the majority of countries) and the first to invent system (adopted by U.S.A.) will be treated at the end of this chapter. In the second chapter the basics of ultrasound are illustrated with particular attention to the physics principles that are at the base of ultrasound devices described in this state of the art investigation. The state of the art is divided in 5 chapters, from 3 to 7, each chapter is about a specific technique. In the third chapter the ultrasound contrast agents are introduced and their main diagnostic application are disclosed. The fourth chapter is about three dimensional imaging, this field is divided in 4 section: mechanical, free-hand, 2D arrays and catheters. In the fifth chapter the technique of elastography and its application is described focusing on the stimulation protocols and methods. The sixth chapter is directed to all the devices that allow to study the blood flow inside vessels and arteries and the seventh chapter treats about the ultrasound catheters and their characteristics. At the end of each chapter statistics about the trends in European patent application in the last 25 years will be illustrated. In the conclusion of this work the future developments field of ultrasound technique will be illustrated

Technology utilization program report, 1974

The adaptation of various technological innovations from the NASA space program to industrial and domestic applications is summarized

Method and Apparatus for Controlling Acoustic Signal Bandwidth in an Ultrasonic Diagnostic Imaging System

An ultrasonic imaging system includes a receive beam former that generates analog receive signals and a scan converter. A receive signal processing path interconnects the receive beamformer and the scan converter, and this processing path includes both an A/D converter characterized by a selectable sampling rate and at least one filter characterized by at least one filter parameter. The filter parameter is selected as a function of the sampling rate to provide enhanced image quality

Detection of cystic structures using pulsed ultrasonically induced resonant cavitation

Apparatus and method for early detection of cystic structures indicative of ovarian and breast cancers uses ultrasonic wave energy at a unique resonance frequency for inducing cavitation in cystic fluid characteristic of cystic structures in the ovaries associated with ovarian cancer, and in cystic structures in the breast associated with breast cancer. Induced cavitation bubbles in the cystic fluid implode, creating implosion waves which are detected by ultrasonic receiving transducers attached to the abdomen of the patient. Triangulation of the ultrasonic receiving transducers enables the received signals to be processed and analyzed to identify the location and structure of the cyst

Label-free high-throughput photoacoustic tomography of suspected circulating melanoma tumor cells in patients in vivo

Significance: Detection and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), a key determinant of metastasis, are critical for determining risk of disease progression, understanding metastatic pathways, and facilitating early clinical intervention. Aim: We aim to demonstrate label-free imaging of suspected melanoma CTCs. Approach: We use a linear-array-based photoacoustic tomography system (LA-PAT) to detect melanoma CTCs, quantify their contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs), and measure their flow velocities in most of the superficial veins in humans. Results: With LA-PAT, we successfully imaged suspected melanoma CTCs in patients in vivo, with a CNR >9. CTCs were detected in 3 of 16 patients with stage III or IV melanoma. Among the three CTC-positive patients, two had disease progression; among the 13 CTC-negative patients, 4 showed disease progression. Conclusions: We suggest that LA-PAT can detect suspected melanoma CTCs in patients in vivo and has potential clinical applications for disease monitoring in melanoma