Professional Documents
Culture Documents
From the knowledge of the time delay Td between an emitted burst and
the echo issue from the particle, the depth p of this particle could
computed by:
where c is the sound velocity of the ultrasonic wave in the liquid.If the
particle is moving at an angle q regarding the axis of the ultrasonic
beam, its velocity could be measured by computing the variation of its
depth between two emissions separated in time by Tprf:
The time difference (T2-T1) is always very short, most of the time lower
than a microsecond. It is advantageous to replace this time
measurement by a measurement of the phase shift of the received echo.
This last equation gives the same result as the Doppler equation. But
one should always be aware that the phenomena involved are not the
same. assume that the particles are randomly distributed inside the
ultrasonic beam. The echoes issue from each particle are then
combined together in a random fashion, giving a random echo signal.
Hopefully, a high degree of correlation exists between different
emissions. This high correlation degree is put in advance in all digital
processing techniques used in Signal Processing's Ultrasonic Doppler
velocimeter to extract information, such as the velocity.
Doppler Effect
INTODUCTION:
B-mode imaging is based on the reflection and scatter of
ultrasound at interfaces and intrinsic organic structures. The
information carriers that make Doppler sonography possible are the
red blood cells (erythrocytes) inside the vessels, which move towards
the transducer or away from it at various speed. The Doppler effect
is named after the physicist Christian Johann Doppler (1803 – 1853).
Doppler physically interpreted and mathematically expressed the
fact that the light of stars moving towards the earth undergoes a shift
towards blue (shorter wavelength), and that the light of stars moving
away from the earth undergoes a shift towards red (longer
wavelength).
In a similar way, the sound waves generated from the erythrocytes
and the echo signals returning to the transducer experience a slight
frequency shift ∆f with regard to the transmit frequency f. The
frequency shift ∆f depends on the magnitude and direction of the
blood flow velocity v. The scatter echoes from within the vessels are
weaker than the signals obtained from the interfaces of vessels,
organs, and tissues, by a factor of 100 to 1000. For their detection
and processing a very sensitive system technique is needed.
∆f = 2 ⋅ f/c ⋅ v ⋅ cos Θ
From the above two equations, we could see that increasing the time
between pulses (TPRF) will increase the maximum measurable depth,
but will also reduce the maximum velocity which can be measured. The
maximum velocity and maximum depth are thus related according to the
following equation:
Ultrasound scattering
If the size of the particle is bigger than the wave length, the ultrasonic
waves are reflected and refracted by the particle. In such a case the
direction of propagation and the intensity of the ultrasonic waves are
affected. But if the size of the particle is much smaller than the wave
length an other phenomena appears, which is named scattering. In such
a case, a very small amount of the ultrasonic energy is reflected in all
direction. The intensity and the direction of propagation of the incoming
waves are practically not affected by the scattering phenomena.
Ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry needs therefore particles smaller than
the wave length.
Doppler Waveforms and Vascular Resistance
The velocity vs. time display of the Doppler spectrum or the velocity
curves deduced from it yield information on the differences and
changes of peripheral vascular resistance. At a constant blood
pressure P, conclusions may be drawn on the perfusion (indirect
method) from the relation between volume flow Q and vascular
resistance R (see figure 2006).
The pulse travel time T determines the shortest possible time interval
between two successive transmit pulses. Therefore the pulse repetition
frequency PRF for the transmit pulse cannot be set higher than 1/T
without jeopardizing the unambiguous depth assignment. Since the
applicable PRF values are also in the range of the Doppler
frequencies ∆f, depth discrimination with the PW-Doppler is
achieved at the price of an ambiguous evaluation of higher flow
velocities, resulting in aliasing effects. Also Color Doppler is a PW-
technique to which both the Doppler equation and the restrictions
concerning PRF are applicable.
Direct Measurement of Volume Flow
TAV mean is equivalent to the average constant flow velocity and is the
basis for the direct, quantitative calculation of the volume flow Q:
Q = A ⋅ TAVmean
where A = π r2, the cross sectional area of the vessel at the sampling
site which is obtained from the vessel diameter 2 r measured in the B-
mode image. When interpreting these values with regard to the
volume flow Q, two critical sources of error must be considered:
First, the limited measuring accuracy of the vessel diameter,
especially in the case of very small vessels and second, the angle
correction error which depends on the angle of incidence.
Nota bene: TAVmax , i.e. the time averaged maximum velocity, cannot
be utilized for the determination of the volume flow Q, since it would
overestimate it. TAVmax is frequently used for the indirect evaluation
of organ perfusion.