• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4E
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• pp.159-165
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• 2006

Human, horse and rat bloods in a cylindrical chamber where flow was controlled by a stirring magnet were used for studying red blood cell aggregation. Ultrasound backscattered powers from blood were obtained from the backscattered signals measured by a 5 MHz focused transducer in a pulse-echo setup. The experimental results showed the differences in red blood cell (RBC) aggregation tendency among the three mammalian species with an order of horse > human > rat. The ultrasound backscattered power decreased with stirring speed in human and horse blood, but no variations were observed in rat blood. Sudden flow stoppage led to the slow increase of the backscattered power for human and horse blood. There was no self-aggregation tendency in rat blood. The enveloped echo images showed the spatial and temporal variations of RBC aggregations in the cylindrical chamber. These observations from the different mammalian species may give a better understanding of the mechanism of RBC aggregation.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2020

In High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment, effective localization of HIFU focus is important for developing a safe treatment plan. While Magnetic Resonance Imaging guided HIFU (MRIgHIFU) can visualize the ultrasound path during the treatment for localizing HIFU focus, it is challenging in ultrasound imaging guided HIFU (USIgHIFU). In the present study, a real-time ultrasound beam visualization technique capable of localizing HIFU focus is presented for USIgHIFU. In the proposed method, a short pulse, with the same center frequency of an imaging ultrasound transducer below the regulated acoustic intensity (i.e., Ispta < 720 mW/㎠), was transmitted through a HIFU transducer whereupon backscattered signals were received by the imaging transducer. To visualize the HIFU beam path, the backscattered signals underwent dynamic receive focusing and subsequent echo processing. From in vitro experiments with bovine serum albumin gel phantoms, the HIFU beam path was clearly depicted with low acoustic intensity (i.e., Ispta of 94.8 mW/㎠) and the HIFU focus was successfully localized before any damages were produced. This result indicates that the proposed ultrasound beam path visualization method can be used for localizing the HIFU focus in real time while minimizing unwanted tissue damage in USIgHIFU treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.959-966
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• 2010

Quantitative ultrasound analysis provides fundamental information of various ultrasound parameters using spectral information of the short-gated radiofrequency(RF) data. Therefore, accurate extraction of spectral information from backscattered RF signal is crucial for further analysis of medical ultrasound parameters. In this paper, we propose two techniques for calculating a more accurate power spectrum which are based on the phase-compensation using the normalized cross-correlation to minimize estimation errors due to phase variations, and the weighted averaging technique to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR). The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method estimates better results with 10% smaller estimation variances compared to the conventional methods.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.447-453
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• 2005

Laboratory measurements were performed in a uni-algae medium Cochlodinium polykrikoides (Phytoplankton, dinoflagellates) using an Underwater Ultrasound $(5\~15\;MHz)$ to study Characteristics of Acoustic Backscattering of Harmful algae. In an effort to detect the harmful algal scatterers with population density of less than 300 cells/ml that corresponds to the precaution stage of red tide, backscattered signals from various scatterer-density samples were obtained and analyzed. Correlations between volume backscattering strength (Sv) and population density (cells/ml) of scatterers in the medium have been investigated. Comparison of Volume Backscattering Strengths calculated with the fluid-sphere model [1] and the measured values showed an agreement.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.11
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• pp.1887-1893
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• 2016

The VSA(Video Signal Analysis) method is the time-domain approach for estimating ultrasonic attenuation which utilizes the envelop signals from backscattered rf signals. The echogenicity of backscattered ultrasonic signals, however, from deeper depths are distorted when the broadband transmit pulse is used and it degrades the estimation accuracy of attenuation coefficients. We propose the modified VSA method using adaptive bandpass filters according to the centroid shift of echo signals as a pulse propagates. The technique of dual-reference diffraction compensation is also proposed to minimize the estimation errors because the difference of attenuation properties between the reference and sample aggravates the estimation accuracy when the differences are accumulated in deeper depth. The proposed techniques minimize the distortion of relative echogenicity and maximize the signal-to-noise ratio at the given depth. Simulation results for numerical tissue-mimicking phantoms show that the Rectangular-shaped filter with the appropriate center frequency exhibits the best estimation performance and the technique of the dual-reference diffraction compensation dramatically improves accuracy for the region after the beam focus.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.658-662
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• 2001

The classification of surface flaw types was performed on the basis of angular dependence of backscattered ultrasound. The copper line adhered on the surface, cower line filled in groove, pure groove and the normal edge were adopted as various surface flaw patterns of glass specimen. A backward longitudinal profile was formed probably by the longitudinal wane scattering at and near 1st critical angle. The wave trains at the peak angles of the backward radiation profiles showed different shapes according to the superposition ratio of scattered and leaky waves. The asymmetry of the backward radiation profile arose due to the scattering effect of flaw. The additive resonance effect of copper line appeared in the left side of the profile. The peak angles of both the longitudinal and radiation profiles were shifted toward small angle by the scattering effect.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 1994

To measure the velocity of heart wall and local flow transctaneously in blood vessels, we have developed a single channel 3.1 MHz pulsed ultrasonic Doppler velocity meter. Ultrasound pluse width and repetition frequency (PRF) used in the velocity meter is 1 ${\mu}$sec 6kHz reapectively, and the Doppler shift of the backscattered echo signal is sensed in a phase detector by coherent demodulation method. From the output of the phase detector, the Doppler signal corresponding to the mean velocity of acoustic wave scatterers over a small region is obtained by using a range gate, sample holder and band-pass filter. Mean frequency of Doppler signal is estimated by zero-crossing counter and the instantaneous velocity of scatters is displayed as a function of time. It is possible to estimate velocity profile, volume flow and flow acceleration of vessels in man if the number of channels and range resolution in increased.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2010

Attenuation coefficients of medical ultrasound not only reflect the pathological information of tissues scanned but also provide the quantitative information to compensate the decay of backscattered signals for other medical ultrasound parameters. Based on the frequency-selective attenuation property of human tissues, attenuation estimation methods in spectral domain have difficulties for real-time implementation due to the complexicity while estimation methods in time domain do not achieve the compensation for the diffraction effect effectively. In this paper, we propose the modified VSA method, which compensates the diffraction with reference phantom in time domain, using adaptive bandpass filters with decreasing center frequencies along depths. The adaptive bandpass filtering technique minimizes the distortion of relative echogenicity of wideband transmit pulses and maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio due to the random scattering, especially at deeper depths. Since the filtering center frequencies change according to the accumulated attenuation, the proposed algorithm improves estimation accuracy and precision comparing to the fixed filtering method. Computer simulation and experimental results using tissue-mimicking phantoms demonstrate that the distortion of relative echogenicity is decreased at deeper depths, and the accuracy of attenuation estimation is improved by 5.1% and the standard deviation is decreased by 46.9% for the entire scan depth.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.342-348
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• 2003

Ultrasonic backscattering profiles of the Zr plates(with a thickness of 1.32mm) with/without Be-Zr alloy layer(with a thickness of $100{\mu}m$) were measured at various incidence positions to evaluate the characteristics of Be diffusion layer. Four principal subprofiles were observed in the backward ultrasound radiated from leaky Lamb waves. The angles and the intensities of the subprofile peaks decreased by the stiffening effect of Be layer. Generation and change of the subprofiles were explained by the acoustical property, collective group velocity and leaky factor difference of the plates under consideration. Backward radiation subprofiles turned out to be an useful method for evaluating thin diffusion layers on plates.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2004

The angular dependence (or profile) of backscattered ultrasound was measured for steel specimens with a range of surface roughness, $1{\sim}71{\mu}m$. Backscattering profiles at or near the Rayleigh angle still showed roughness dependence while the assessment of surface roughness via normal profile became impossible due to the paint layer masking the roughness. The peak amplitude directly radiated at the Rayleigh angle was proportional to the surface roughness, while the averaged peak amplitude radiated from the backward propagating Rayleigh wave, produced by reflection at a corner, was inversely proportional. In the painted specimens, the linearity of direct backward radiation with the roughness was observed even at the roughness of less than three hundredths of a wavelength, and the abnormal multiple bark reflection caused by periodic roughness disappeared.