ECG gated ultrasonic small animal imaging
Resource
the 27th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Shanghai, China,(2005.09)
Journal
the 27th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
Pages
1762-1765
Date Issued
2005-09
Author(s)
Abstract
Echocardiography is a routine clinical procedure to diagnose cardiac functions. The organic structure of the mouse is similar to that of human so that murine echocardiography has potentially become an effective tool for the assessment of human cardiovascular disease. However, clinical ultrasonic imaging systems are not suitable for murine cardiac imaging due to its limited spatial and temporal resolution. Thus, high frequency ultrasonic imaging (? 20 MHz) is necessary in order to provide spatial resolution at the order of 100 μm. Furthermore, due to the lack of transducer arrays at such a high frequency, single-element transducer with mechanical scanning is typically used. Thus the frame rate is insufficient for imaging the quick motion of the mouse. In this paper, a high frequency ultrasonic imaging system with electrocardiography gating is built in order to provide both high spatial resolution and high temporal effecting resolution. The system utilizes the R-wave trigger signal from murine electrocardiography. Image data are acquired in either the block scanning mode or the line scanning mode. In block scanning, murine cardiac images in systole and diastole can be retrospectively reconstructed with a short data acquisition time. In line scanning, on the other hand, images during the entire cardiac cycle can be obtained. It is demonstrated that the effective frame rate can be up to 2 kHz, which is only limited by the pulse repetition rate of the system. ? 2005 IEEE.
SDGs
Other Subjects
Cardiology; Cardiovascular system; Diseases; Transducers; Ultrasonic imaging; Clinical ultrasonic imaging systems; Electrocardiography gating; Single element transducers; Transducer arrays; Electrocardiography
Type
conference paper