Development of High-Resolution Ultrasonic Imaging Techniques for Detection and Clinical Assessment of Cardiovascular Disease

摘要

The goals of this project were to develop and test ultrasound instrumentation and methods for the detection and assessment of atherosclerosis in carotid and femoral arteries of living patients, thereby avoiding the pain, risk, and associated drawbacks of angiography. Instruments have been developed to image human carotid and femoral arteries in vivo, monkey carotid and femoral arteries in vivo, and excised human carotid arteries from cadavers in vitro. Major improvements in the image quality of the B-scans have been made through the use of a dynamically focused annular-array transducer, improved electronic signal processing, and a solid-state scan converter (to remove flickering from the B-scan images). Alphanumeric data registration on photographs of B-scans is now available, reducing errors and saving much valuable operator time and effort. Significant revisions to the Doppler system signal-processing network are also underway. Planned additional subsystems have been added to the clinical version of the instrument that will be ready for resumption of clinical evaluation after all sub-systems have been tested and made functional. Preliminary three-dimensional reconstructions of B-scan images in vitro have now been achieved. This technique holds great promise for dramatic improvements in the comprehensive presentation of detailed images of atherosclerotic lesions, with a corresponding increase in diagnostic capability and clinical acceptance.