Zhang, Xiaoming

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been the number one killer in the United States. It has long been recognized that a high percentage of all cardiovascular disease is associated with the hardening of arteries or arteriosclerosis. Several imaging techniques, including x-ray angiography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), etc., are available for imaging atherosclerotic arteries. Most imaging techniques measure luminal diameter, wall thickness and plaque volume. However, no current imaging methods can measure elasticity of the arterial wall. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a simple and robust method to measure arterial stiffness. However, PWV can not evaluate the local arterial stiffness. We have developed a novel ultrasound method for estimating local elasticity of arteries by the wave speed dispersion. In this paper, we present a method to measure the wave speed dispersion by resonance. Theory was developed to calculate the wave speed in cylindrical tubes. Experiments were done on a rubber tube. The resonance of the tube was generated by an air-coupled ultrasound transducer. The resonance frequency was measured by a laser vibrometer. Theoretical and experimental wave dispersions were compared. This method may be useful in characterizing the elastic properties of arterial samples where the wave speed dispersion can not be easily measured.

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is widely used for estimating the stiffness of an artery. PWV is measured by the time of travel of the “foot” of the pressure wave over a known distance. This technique has a low time resolution and is an average measurement of artery stiffness between the two measuring positions. In this paper an arterial wave is generated non-invasively in the vessel wall by the radiation force of ultrasound. The wave velocity in the vessel is measured non-invasively by ultrasound with high time resolution over a short distance of a few millimeters.

A new method for imaging and detecting modal shapes of vessels is introduced. Theory is developed that predicts the measured velocity is proportional to the value of the mode shape at the focal point of the ultrasound beam. Experimental a cylindrical gel phantom of large radius. This model simulates approximately a large artery and the surrounding body. The fundamental frequency was measured 83 Hz for the tube-phantom system. At this frequency the ultrasound transducer was scanned across the vessel plane with velocity measurement at one single point on the vessel and on the phantom by laser. The images obtained show clearly the interior tube and the modal shape of the tube.

Vibro-acoustography is a new noncontact imaging method based on the radiation force of ultrasound. We extend this new technique for tissue characterization of arterial vessels by vibration techniques. In this paper a theoretical model for vibration analysis of arterial vessel with tissue is developed. Experimental studies were carried out on a silicone rubber tube embedded in a cylindrical gelatin phantom of larger radius, which simulates a large artery and the tissue body. The fundamental mode is well excited by the radiation force of ultrasound. The fundamental frequency was measured 81.8 Hz for a tube-phantom structure that is quite close to our theoretical prediction of 83.3 Hz.

Arterial wall stiffness can be associated with various diseases. The stiffness of an artery can be assessed by measurement of the pulse wave velocity (PWV). Usually, PWV is estimated using the foot-to-foot method. However, the foot of the pressure wave is not very clear due to reflected waves. Also, the blood pressure wave generated by the heart is normally a low frequency wave, hence the time resolution is low. PWV is an average indicator of artery stiffness between two measuring locations, therefore, it is not easy to identify local stiffness. In this paper a short external pulse is generated in an artery by the radiation force of ultrasound. The propagation velocity of the pulse wave is measured along the artery. The temporal resolution of this method, which is in the range of microseconds, is much higher than the conventional pressure PWV method, and therefore allows the wave velocity to be measured accurately over a few millimeters.

In paper, we report our recent results of using the air force ultrasound transducer to study the resonance of rubber tubes. Experiments were carried out on a rubber latex tube. Seven resonant frequencies were measured between 50 Hz and 200 Hz. Theoretical calculation of the resonant frequency on the tube was done with the wave propagation approach. The relative differences of the seven resonant frequencies between the experiment and the theory are less than 6 %. This research shows that the air force ultrasound transducer can be used for tube resonance measurement.

The mechanical response of tissues to external forces has gained considerable interest in medical diagnosis. One approach to imaging tissue elastic properties is to apply an external force on the surface of the body. Another approach is to generate a localized force inside the tissue with the radiation force of ultrasound. In this paper, a new method is developed to estimate tissue’s elasticity based on surface wave speed measurement. The theory of surface wave speed is developed for estimating tissue’s elasticity. Experiments are carried out on a tissue-mimicking ultrasound phantom. An amplitude modulated ultrasound signal of a few hundred hertz is used to generate a localized force in the phantom. The surface wave fields are measured with a laser vibrometer. It shows that the surface wave speed can be used for inversely estimating tissue’s elastic properties based on tissue’s surface measurement.

Arterial wall stiffness can be associated with various diseases. Arteriosclerosis involves the buildup of plaques within artery walls that stiffen the arteries. The stiffness of an artery can be assessed by measurement of the pulse wave velocity (PWV). Usually, PWV is estimated using the foot-to-foot method. However, the foot of the pressure wave is not very clear due to reflected waves. Also, the blood pressure wave generated by the heart is normally a low frequency wave, hence the time resolution is low. PWV is an average indicator of artery stiffness between the two measuring positions, and therefore cannot easily identify local stiffness. In this paper a force on the arterial wall is generated noninvasively by the radiation force of ultrasound. Techniques for measuring the propagating wave due to this localized force are studied. The excitation force can be either a very short pulse or a modulated cw signal of a few hundred hertz. The temporal resolution of this method, which is in the range of microseconds, is much higher than the conventional pressure PWV method, and therefore allows the wave velocity to be measured accurately over short distances of a few millimeters.

The inverse problem of determining the size, shape and orientation of a submerged object using the scattered field data is studied. Based on the physical optics approximate, the profile function of the object is found directly proportional to its ramp response that is the second integral of the impulse response. Through analyzing the feature of the ramp response in different computed frequency ranges, it is found that the low-frequency data are essential to the shape of the underwater object while the high-frequency data are very important to the size of the object. Therefore, when employing the high-frequency data to compute the ramp response, the edge of the object can only be highlighted in the illuminated region at certain aspect. Based on this finding, a new method is developed to estimate the size of underwater objects. The present method uses different frequency ranges to determine different parameters of the underwater objects so as to achieve the best accuracy. A number of examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present method in using the ramp response technique to identify the size of both rigid and elastic bodies.

The inverse problems in the area of the acoustic scattering often concern the determination of the size, shape, and orientation of an object using the scattered field data. This paper presents a method to retrieve the shape information of an underwater object using illuminated lengths, which can be obtained from the ramp response signatures of the object. An ellipsoidal object submerged in water is considered. Both the low and high backscattered frequency data have been employed to calculate the illuminated lengths. The calculated results show that the illuminated lengths will be more accurate, if only the high-frequency-range data are employed. For ellipsoidal objects, any three illuminated lengths that are not of a same plane can in theory fully determine the shape of the ellipsoid. As the calculated illuminated lengths contain numerical errors, the calculated results of the three semiaxes of the ellipsoid will deteriorate and become unreliable, especially when the three incident directions of the illuminated lengths become close. The reason is that the condition number of the coefficient matrix becomes big in such situations, which leads to an increase of the relative error upper limit in the calculated results. To avoid such errors in close incident wave cases, it is found that the use of more than three incident waves works very well in the shape identification of an underwater object.