DocumentCode :
1960483
Title :
Impact of the structure of subcutaneous tissue on ultrasonic clutter
Author :
Dahl, Jeremy J.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Duke Univ., Durham, NC, USA
fYear :
2010
fDate :
11-14 Oct. 2010
Firstpage :
2167
Lastpage :
2170
Abstract :
Subcutaneous tissue is often associated with ultrasonic clutter and phase aberration. However, the complexities of subcutaneous tissue are often replaced by far simpler models in phase aberration, and are not well defined in the case of ultrasonic clutter. We employed a nonlinear, full-wave simulation method to compare the impact of subcutaneous tissue structure on ultrasonic clutter. Simplified models of male and female connective tissue networks were created, including networks with varying degrees of fascial layer density and angles relative to the transducer probe. The models were given the speed of sound, density, and attenuation appropriate for the associated fat and connective tissue. The amount of ultrasonic clutter depended on the density and angle of the fascial layers, although the two factors were not necessarily independent. Increases in the density and angle of the fascial layers increased the magnitude of clutter. Differences were observed between the female and subcutaneous tissue structures, yielding approximately 3 to 15 dB higher clutter magnitude in the male structure. The human abdominal models generated relatively high clutter magnitude, ranging from near OdB just beneath the abdominal layer to approximately -33 dB and -27 dB for the two models. In these realistic models of human abdominal tissue, the high density of fascial layers increased the number of multipath reflections contributing to the clutter, and generated high clutter magnitude.
Keywords :
aberrations; biological tissues; biomedical transducers; biomedical ultrasonics; cellular biophysics; abdominal layer; connective tissue; fascial layer density; full-wave simulation method; human abdominal model; human abdominal tissue; multipath reflections; phase aberration; subcutaneous tissue; subcutaneous tissue structure; transducer probe; Acoustics; Clutter; Connective tissue; Humans; Skin; Transducers; Ultrasonic imaging;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), 2010 IEEE
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
ISSN :
1948-5719
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0382-9
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ULTSYM.2010.5935847
Filename :
5935847
Link To Document :
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