A PC based system for the acquisition and the analysis of Doppler ultrasound signals

The authors have developed a simulation tool to study spectral analysis of Doppler ultrasound signals. This tool makes it possible to test several acquisition conditions and to study on real Doppler signals, their influence on the parameters to be measured. The open architecture used for the acquisition system makes it possible to modify the spectral analysis of the Doppler signals and to access parameters never found before on clinically used recorders. A system based on an A/D (analog/digital) card and a PC was developed for the acquisition of real Doppler signals from a clinical recorder. Processing allowing automatic contour recognition of blood flows for parameter extraction is described. In addition, the system allows evaluation of the FFT computation and extraction of new information from the power spectrum