Title :
Ultrasonic classification of gallstones
Author :
Lau, T.H. ; Forster, F.K. ; Baron, R.L.
Author_Institution :
Washington Univ., Seattle, WA, USA
Abstract :
The chemical composition of gallstones varies significantly, and the choice between nonsurgical treatment by dissolution and/or shock-wave lithotripsy depends on those properties. Acoustic imaging and measurements of acoustic attenuation using gated backscatter signals selected from the interior of gallstones between 4 and 6 mm in size have been accomplished with a high-frequency (30-MHz) ultrasonic system. Preliminary results indicate that gallstones can be differentiated by imaging and by selectively choosing regions from the image and performing attenuation measurements. Regions within gallstones that had high cholesterol content had significantly lower acoustic attenuation. In addition, gallstones of mixed composition could be identified from images that delineate inhomogeneous regions
Keywords :
biomedical ultrasonics; patient diagnosis; 30 MHz; 4 to 6 mm; acoustic attenuation; cholesterol content; gallstone chemical composition; gated backscatter signals; inhomogeneous regions delineation; nonsurgical treatment; shock-wave lithotripsy; ultrasonic classification; Acoustic imaging; Acoustic measurements; Attenuation measurement; Backscatter; Chemicals; Lithotripsy; Performance evaluation; Size measurement; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonic variables measurement;
Conference_Titel :
Ultrasonics Symposium, 1989. Proceedings., IEEE 1989
Conference_Location :
Montreal, Que.
DOI :
10.1109/ULTSYM.1989.67142
