Ultrasound elastography is a technique used for clinical imaging of tissue stiffness with a conventional ultrasound machine. It was first proposed two decades ago, but active research continues in this area to the present day. Numerous clinical applications have been investigated, mostly related to cancer imaging, and though these have yet to prove conclusive, the technique has seen increasing ...

Z-fiducial phantoms allow three-dimensional ultrasound probe calibration with a single B-scan. One of the main difficulties in using this phantom is the need for reliable segmentation of the wires in the ultrasound images, which necessitates manual intervention. In this article, we have shown how we can solve this problem by mounting a thin rubber membrane on top of the phantom. The membrane is...

e recent trial by Biais and colleagues adds to a growing body of literature supporting point-of-care ultrasound in the critical care setting [1]. Th e authors demonstrate that, in the hands of two expert users, a newer pocket-sized device was comparable with conventional ultrasound machines for several key echocardiographic parameters. Clearly in the right hands, the VscanTM (GE Healthcare, Wau...

The overwhelming majority of intra-operative hazard situations in tracked ultrasound (US) systems are attributed to failure of registration between tracking and imaging coordinate frames. We introduce a novel methodology for eal-time in-vivo quality control of tracked US systems, in order to capture registration failures during the clinical procedure. In effect, we dynamically recalibrate the t...

Intra-cardiac 3D ultrasound imaging has enabled new minimally invasive procedures. Its narrow field of view, however, limits its efficacy in guiding beating heart procedures where geometrically complex and spatially extended moving anatomic structures are often involved. In this paper, we present a system that performs electrocardiograph gated 4D mosaicing and visualization of 3DUS volumes. Rea...

PURPOSE: Ultrasound offers a safe radiation-free approach to visualize the spine and measure or assess scoliosis. However, ultrasound assessment also poses major challenges. We propose a real-time algorithm and software implementation to automatically delineate the posterior surface patches of transverse processes in tracked ultrasound; a necessary step toward the ultimate goal of spinal curvat...

A technique known as Time Delay Spectrometry (TDS), which has been used at JPL for ultrasonic tissue characterization, has promise for similar application in materials characterization as well. This technique differs from the approaches based on pulse-echo techniques which are used by other workers. Time Delay Spectrometry operates in the frequency domain directly. The transducer is excited by ...

A hybridized dual-imaging system combining real-time ultrasound imaging and MRI was utilized for cardiac imaging at 1.5 T and 3 T. The ultrasound scanner with a programmable software interface was connected via computer to the MRI scanner. Electronic noise was eliminated with electromagnetic shielding and grounding to the screen room. At 3 T, real-time prospective motion compensation in dynamic...

In approximately 15–20% of the cases, stroke results from embolisation arising from atherosclerotic plaques of the carotid bifurcation or of the internal carotid artery [1, 2]. Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease characterised by the accumulation of lipids and fibrous elements in the large arteries [3]. Advanced lesions contain lipid-rich necrotic debris and smooth muscle cells. Fibrous le...