A method for delineation of bone surfaces in photoacoustic computed tomography of the finger

Photoacoustic imaging of interphalangeal peripheral joints is of interest in the context of using the synovial membrane as a surrogate marker of rheumatoid arthritis. Previous work has shown that ultrasound produced by absorption of light at the epidermis reflects on the bone surfaces within the finger. When the reflected signals are backprojected in the region of interest, artifacts are produced, confounding interpretation of the images. In this work, we present an approach where the photoacoustic signals known to originate from the epidermis, are treated as virtual ultrasound transmitters, and a separate reconstruction is performed as in ultrasound reflection imaging. This allows us to identify the bone surfaces. Further, the identification of the joint space is important as this provides a landmark to localize a region-of-interest in seeking the inflamed synovial membrane. The ability to delineate bone surfaces allows us not only to identify the artifacts, but also to identify the interphalangeal joint space without recourse to new US hardware or a new measurement. We test the approach on phantoms and on a healthy human finger

Ultrasonic Imaging Systems

The use of ultrasonic imaging systems for non-destructive evaluation is increasing, with particular interest being paid to research into real time and quasi-real time imaging systems. Photos are shown which were taken using an electronically scanned and focused real time ultrasonic imaging system. The system can be operated with longitudinal waves, shear waves, Rayleigh waves, and lamb waves in the 1.5 MHz to 3.5 MHz frequency range, and has been successfully used on composite materials (boron fiber epoxy on titanium) and on a number of metals (steel, aluminum, and titanium). This system has been operated in both transmission and reflection modes; examples of each are shown

Local Oscillatory Rheology from Echography

Local Oscillatory Rheology from Echography (LORE) consists in a traditional rheology experiment synchronized with high-frequency ultrasonic imaging which gives access to the local material response to oscillatory shear. Besides classical global rheological quantities, this method provides quantitative time-resolved information on the local displacement across the entire gap of the rheometer. From the local displacement response, we compute and decompose the local strain in its Fourier components and measure the spatially-resolved viscoelastic moduli. After benchmarking our method on homogeneous Newtonian fluids and soft solids, we demonstrate that this technique is well suited to characterize spatially heterogeneous samples, wall slip, and the emergence of nonlinearity under large amplitude oscillatory stress in soft materials.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Applie

A match coefficient approach for damage imaging in structural components by ultrasonic synthetic aperture focus

Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focus (SAF) techniques are commonly used to image structural defects. In this paper, a variation of SAF based on ideas borrowed from Matched Field Processing (MFP) is evaluated to reduce artifacts and sidelobes of the resulting images. In particular, instead of considering the full RF ultrasonic waveforms for the SAF time backpropagation, only selected features from the waveforms are utilized to form a “data vector” and a “replica” (expected) vector of MFP. These vectors are adaptive for the pair of transmitter-receiver and the focus point. The image is created as a matched filter between these two vectors. Experimental results are shown for an isotropic and homogenous metallic plate with simulated defects, probed by six piezoelectric patches used as receivers or transmitters

Experimental investigation of inter-element isolation in a medical array transducer at various manufacturing stages

This work presents the experimental investigation of vibration maps of a linear array transducer with 192 piezoelements by means of a laser Doppler vibrometer at various manufacturing finishing steps in air and in water. Over the years, many researchers have investigated cross-coupling in fabricated prototypes but not in arrays at various manufacturing stages. Only the central element of the array was driven at its working frequency of 5 MHz. The experimental results showed that the contributions of cross-coupling depend on the elements of the acoustic stack: Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT), kerf, filler, matching layer, and lens. The oscillation amplitudes spanned from (6 ± 38%) nm to (110 ± 40%) nm when the energized element was tested in air and from (6 ± 57%) nm to (80 ± 67%) nm when measurements were obtained under water. The best inter-element isolation of -22 dB was measured in air after cutting the kerfs, whereas the poorest isolation was -2 dB under water with an acoustic lens (complete acoustic stack). The vibration pattern in water showed a higher standard deviation on the displacement measurements than the one obtained in air, due to the influence of acousto-optic interactions. The amount increased to 30% in water, as estimated by a comparison with the measurements in air. This work describes a valuable method for manufacturers to investigate the correspondence between the manufacturing process and the quantitative evaluations of the resulting effects