A novel medical ultrasound imaging method (06790)

Obtaining reliable and detailed information about the structure and functionality of organs like the heart, liver, spleen, or kidney is of the utmost importance for the diagnosis and the subsequent treatment of a patient. Ultrasound imaging or echography is a relatively cheap and easy to use technique, and further improvement of the basic image quality would be very profitable for cardiac diagnosis in particular and the diagnostic value of echography in general. 
The image quality of echographic images can be significantly enhanced by using the harmonics of the transmitted ultrasound signal instead of using the fundamental frequency only, as became obvious with the introduction of Tissue Harmonic Imaging, which is based on the use of the second harmonic. The current project aims at a further improvement by the development of SuperHarmonic Imaging, which includes the third to the fifth harmonic. In particular, the project involves 1) the development of a dedicated phased array ultrasound transducer that is able to deal with the extreme large bandwidth associated with SuperHarmonic Imaging, and 2) the development of a computer model that is capable of accurately predicting the higher harmonics in the emitted nonlinear acoustic fields, in order to facilitate the development process of the transducer.

Apart from future patients, the main group that is going to benefit from the SuperHarmonic Imaging method are the clinicians, in particular cardiologists and radiologists, working at medical institutions. Ultrasound transducer and scanner manufacturers may benefit from the project since specialised imaging electronics and imaging software will be developed . The computer model will enable the optimization of the transducer for SuperHarmonic Imaging and the understanding of the physical backgrounds of the proposed method. It can be developed into a general simulation tool for a variety of wave and field problems, and as such be marketed by a software manufacturer. Further it will be of great value for manufacturers of ultrasound scanners and transducers.