A spatial and temporal characterisation of single proton acoustic waves in proton beam cancer therapy

An in vivo range verification technology for proton beam cancer therapy, preferably in real-time and with submillimeter resolution, is desired to reduce the present uncertainty in dose localization. Acoustical imaging technologies exploiting possible local interactions between protons and microbubbles or nanodroplets might be an interesting...

Refraction-Corrected Transcranial Ultrasound Imaging through the Human Temporal Window using a Single Probe

Transcranial ultrasound imaging (TUI) is a diagnostic modality with numerous applications, but unfortunately, it is hindered by phase aberration caused by the skull. In this article, we propose to reconstruct a transcranial B-mode image with a refraction-corrected synthetic aperture imaging (SAI) scheme. First, the compressional sound...

Combining ultrafast ultrasound and high-density EMG to assess local electromechanical muscle dynamics: a feasibility study

Skeletal muscles generate force, enabling movement through a series of fast electro-mechanical activations coordinated by the central nervous system. Understanding the underlying mechanism of such fast muscle dynamics is essential in neuromuscular diagnostics, rehabilitation medicine and sports biomechanics. The unique combination of...

Spatiotemporal Distribution of Nanodroplet Vaporization in a Proton Beam Using Real-Time Ultrasound Imaging for Range Verification

The potential of proton therapy to improve the conformity of the delivered dose to the tumor volume is currently limited by range uncertainties. Injectable superheated nanodroplets have recently been proposed for ultrasound-based in vivo range verification, as these vaporize into echogenic microbubbles on proton irradiation. In previous...

Erratum: Lamb Waves and Adaptive Beamforming for Aberration Correction in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Lamb Waves and Adaptive Beamforming for Aberration Correction in Medical Ultrasound Imaging (IEEE Trans.Ultrason., Ferroelectr., Freq. Control, early access (2020) DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2020.3007345)

In the above article [1], we mentioned that the superposition of the different symmetric (S) modes in the frequencywavenumber (f-k) domain results in a high-intensity region where its slope corresponds to the longitudinal wave speed in the slab. However, we have recently understood that this highintensity region belongs to the propagation of...

Lamb Waves and Adaptive Beamforming for Aberration Correction in Medical Ultrasound Imaging

Phase aberration in transcranial ultrasound imaging (TUI) caused by the human skull leads to an inaccurate image reconstruction. In this article, we present a novel method for estimating the speed of sound and an adaptive beamforming technique for phase aberration correction in a flat polyvinylchloride (PVC) slab as a model for the human...

A Front-End ASIC With High-Voltage Transmit Switching and Receive Digitization for 3-D Forward-Looking Intravascular Ultrasound Imaging

This paper presents an area- and power-efficient application-specified integrated circuit (ASIC) for 3-D forward-looking intravascular ultrasound imaging. The ASIC is intended to be mounted at the tip of a catheter, and has a circular active area with a diameter of 1.5 mm on the top of which a 2-D array of piezoelectric transducer elements is...

Fast Volumetric Imaging Using a Matrix Transesophageal Echocardiography Probe with Partitioned Transmit–Receive Array

We describe a 3-D multiline parallel beamforming scheme for real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging using a prototype matrix transesophageal echocardiography probe with diagonally diced elements and separated transmit and receive arrays. The elements in the smaller rectangular transmit array are directly wired to the ultrasound system. The...

Acoustic characterization of a miniature matrix transducer for pediatric 3D transesophageal echocardiography

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a miniature PZT-on-CMOS matrix transducer for real-time pediatric 3-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). This 3D TEE probe consists of a 32 × 32 array of PZT elements integrated on top of an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). We propose a...

A 2D Ultrasound Transducer with Front-End ASIC and Low Cable Count for 3D Forward-Looking Intravascular Imaging: Performance and Characterization

Intravascular ultrasound is an imaging modality used to visualize atherosclerosis from within the inner lumen of human arteries. Complex lesions like chronic total occlusions require forward-looking intravascular ultrasound (FL-IVUS), instead of the conventional side-looking geometry. Volumetric imaging can be achieved with 2D array...

Multiline 3D beamforming using micro-beamformed datasets for pediatric transesophageal echocardiography

Until now, no matrix transducer has been realized for 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in pediatric patients. In 3D TEE with a matrix transducer, the biggest challenges are to connect a large number of elements to a standard ultrasound system, and to achieve a high volume rate (>200 Hz). To address these issues, we have recently...