Phase aberration correction on two-dimensional conformal arrays

Two-dimensional conformal arrays are proposed to enhance low contrast lesion detection deep in the body. The arrays conform to the body maintaining good contact over a large area. To provide full three-dimensional focusing for two-dimensional imaging, such arrays are densely sampled in the scan direction (x) and coarsely sampled in the nonscan direction (y), i.e., the arrays are anisotropic. To illustrate reduction in slice thickness with increased array length in y, a two-dimensional array is synthesized using a one-dimensional, 128 element array with a 3.5 MHz center frequency. A mask is attached confining transmission and reception of acoustic waves to 2 mm in y. Using a mechanical scan system, the one-dimensional array is moved along y covering a 28.16 mm×20.0 mm aperture. Accordingly, the synthetic array has 128 elements in x and 10 elements in y. To correct for geometric irregularities due to array movement, a gelatin based phantom containing three-dimensional point targets is used for phase aberration correction. Results show that elevational beam quality is degraded if small geometric errors are not removed. Emulated conformality at the body surface and phase aberrations induced by spatial inhomogeneities in tissue are further imposed and shown to produce severe beam-forming artifacts. Two-dimensional phase aberration correction is applied and results indicate that the method is adequate to compensate for large phase excursions across the entire array. To fully realize the potential of large, two-dimensional, conformal arrays, proper two-dimensional phase aberration correction methods are necessary     

Phase aberration correction using near-field signal redundancy. II. Experimental results

For pt.I see ibid., vol.44, no.2, pp.355-71. A phase-aberration correction algorithm using near-field signal redundancy was proposed in part I. Here, this algorithm is tested on data collected from phantoms and volunteers. A linear array transducer was used with a synthetic-aperture scanning system. A wedge of plastic gel was used to introduce phase aberrations when collecting data from a phantom. About 40 sets of RF data were collected from eight volunteers. Results from both phantom and volunteer data have shown that the near-field signal redundancy algorithm can improve image quality by correcting phase aberrations when they are present. The results also show that this algorithm is robust.     

A phase aberration correction method for ultrasound imaging

A computationally efficient method for phase aberration correction in ultrasound imaging is presented. The method is based on time delay estimation via minimization of the sum of absolute differences between radio frequency samples of adjacent array elements. Effects of averaging estimated aberration patterns over scan angle and truncation to a single bit wordlength are examined. Phase distortions due to near-field inhomogeneities are simulated using silicone rubber aberrators. Performance of the method is tested using experimental data. Simulation studies addressing different factors affecting efficiency of the method, such as the number of iterations, window length, and the number of scan angles used for averaging, are presented. Images of a standard resolution phantom are reconstructed and used for qualitative testing.     

Phase aberration correction using near-field signal redundancy. I. Principles [Ultrasound medical imaging

The signal redundancy principle in the near field is analyzed quantitatively. It is found that common midpoint signals are not identical (or redundant) for echoes coming from arbitrary target distributions in the near field. A dynamic near-field correction is proposed to reduce the difference between common midpoint signals for echoes coming from the region of interest. When phase aberrations are present, it is shown that the dynamic correction can generally be done assuming no phase aberration, and the relative time-shift between common midpoint signals can be used to measure phase-aberration profiles. A phase-aberration correction algorithm based on that principle is proposed. In this algorithm, after common midpoint signals are collected they are dynamically corrected for near-field effects and cross-correlated with one another. In a related way, the phase errors are measured from peak positions of these cross-correlation functions. The phase-aberration profile across the array is derived from these measurements. The relationship between the errors in the derived phase aberration profile and the errors in the measured relative time-shift between common midpoint signals is derived. A method for treating the situation of different transmission and reception phase-aberration profiles is also proposed. This algorithm works for general target distributions, iteration is not required, and it can be used in other near-field, pulse-echo, imaging systems.     

Phase aberration correction and motion compensation for ultrasonichyperthermia phased arrays: experimental results

In ultrasound hyperthermia, focal patterns generated by phased arrays can be degraded by phase errors due to tissue inhomogeneities, digitization of the driving signals, and imperfect fabrication of the transducers. The degree of degradation depends on the severity of phase aberrations. As predicted by simulation and verified by experimental results, focal degradation scales with the circular variance of phase errors. However, degraded power deposition patterns can be significantly improved after phase aberration correction, especially where patterns are complicated and the aberrations are severe. Also, as shown in motion compensation experiments, an aberration corrected pattern can be particularly sensitive to aberrator movement greater than the correlation length of the aberrator. After motion compensation, new sharply focused patterns can be accomplished, thus reducing the unwanted influence of “body” movement by stabilizing the positions of foci with respect to patient anatomy     

Phase aberration correction in two dimensions with an integrateddeformable actuator/transducer

Two-dimensional arrays are required to implement two-dimensional phase aberration correction using traditional electronic correction techniques. A new transducer design, deformable in the elevation dimension, can be used to implement two-dimensional phase correction without using a full two-dimensional array. Phase correction in azimuth is achieved by altering the electronic phase delays of the elements. Phase correction in elevation is achieved by tilting the elements in elevation with piezoelectric actuators. Previously, such deformable arrays were fabricated by bonding PZT array elements to low frequency actuators. The construction of deformable arrays is simplified by using the actuator for both the element deflection and the generation of ultrasound. The new construction technique was used to fabricate a prototype 1×32 deformable array with a 3.5 MHz center frequency and an actuator flexure resonance of 3° at 1.3 kHz with a 300 Vpp sine wave. The prototype array was characterized and used to make B-scan images. Phase correction was simulated by tilting the elements on-line to alter the B-scan image and resulted in a cyst contrast reduction from 0.86 for the control to 0.76 with the elements tilted. Further characterization of the deformable array performance includes the frequency response of the actuator. Initial results from a 2×32 deformable array fabricated with the new construction technique are also presented. The 2×32 array configuration additionally offers the potential for on-line elevation focusing     

Lesion generation through ribs using histotripsy therapy without aberration correction

This study investigates the feasibility of using high-intensity pulsed therapeutic ultrasound, or histotripsy, to non-invasively generate lesions through the ribs. Histotripsy therapy mechanically ablates tissue through the generation of a cavitation bubble cloud, which occurs when the focal pressure exceeds a certain threshold. We hypothesize that histotripsy can generate precise lesions through the ribs without aberration correction if the main lobe retains its shape and exceeds the cavitation initiation threshold and the secondary lobes remain below the threshold. To test this hypothesis, a 750-kHz focused transducer was used to generate lesions in tissue-mimicking phantoms with and without the presence of rib aberrators. In all cases, 8000 pulses with 16 to 18 MPa peak rarefactional pressure at a repetition frequency of 100 Hz were applied without aberration correction. Despite the high secondary lobes introduced by the aberrators, high-speed imaging showed that bubble clouds were generated exclusively at the focus, resulting in well-confined lesions with comparable dimensions. Collateral damage from secondary lobes was negligible, caused by single bubbles that failed to form a cloud. These results support our hypothesis, suggesting that histotripsy has a high tolerance for aberrated fields and can generate confined focal lesions through rib obstacles without aberration correction.     

Detection of tissue harmonic motion induced by ultrasonic radiation force using pulse-echo ultrasound and Kalman filter

A method using pulse echo ultrasound and the Kalman filter is developed for detecting submicron harmonic motion induced by ultrasonic radiation force. The method estimates the amplitude and phase of the motion at desired locations within a tissue region with high sensitivity. The harmonic motion generated by the ultrasound radiation force is expressed as extremely small oscillatory Doppler frequency shifts in the fast time (A-line) of ultrasound echoes, which are difficult to estimate. In slow time (repetitive ultrasound echoes) of the echoes, the motion also is presented as oscillatory phase shifts, from which the amplitude and phase of the harmonic motion can be estimated with the least mean squared error by Kalman filter. This technique can be used to estimate the traveling speed of a harmonic shear wave by tracking its phase changes during propagation. The shear wave propagation speed can be used to solve for the elasticity and viscosity of tissue as reported in our earlier study. Validation and in vitro experiments indicate that the method provides excellent estimations for very small (submicron) harmonic vibrations and has potential for noninvasive and quantitative stiffness measurements of tissues such as artery.     

Liquid lens using acoustic radiation force

A liquid lens is proposed that uses acoustic radiation force with no mechanical moving parts. It consists of a cylindrical acrylic cell filled with two immiscible liquids (degassed water and silicone oil) and a concave ultrasound transducer. The focal point of the transducer is located on the oil-water interface, which functions as a lens. The acoustic radiation force is generated when there is a difference in the acoustic energy densities of different media. An acoustic standing wave was generated in the axial direction of the lens and the variation of the shape of the oil-water interface was observed by optical coherence tomography (OCT). The lens profile can be rapidly changed by varying the acoustic radiation force from the transducer. The kinematic viscosity of silicone oil was optimized to minimize the response times of the lens. Response times of 40 and 80 ms when switching ultrasonic radiation on and off were obtained with a kinematic viscosity of 200 cSt. The path of a laser beam transmitted through the lens was calculated by ray-tracing simulations based on the experimental results obtained by OCT. The transmitted laser beam could be focused by applying an input voltage. The liquid lens could be operated as a variable-focus lens by varying the input voltage.     

Assessment of shear modulus of tissue using ultrasound radiation force acting on a spherical acoustic inhomogeneity

An ultrasound-based method to locally assess the shear modulus of a medium is reported. The proposed approach is based on the application of an impulse acoustic radiation force to an inhomogeneity in the medium and subsequent monitoring of the spatio-temporal response. In our experimental studies, a short pulse produced by a 1.5-MHz highly focused ultrasound transducer was used to initiate the motion of a rigid sphere embedded into an elastic medium. Another 25 MHz focused ultrasound transducer operating in pulse-echo mode was used to track the displacement of the sphere. The experiments were performed in gel phantoms with varying shear modulus to demonstrate the relationship between the displacement of the sphere and shear modulus of the surrounding medium. Because the magnitude of acoustic force applied to sphere depends on the acoustic material properties and, therefore, cannot be used to assess the absolute value of shear modulus, the temporal behavior of the displacement of the sphere was analyzed. The results of this study indicate that there is a strong correlation between the shear modulus of a medium and spatio-temporal characteristics of the motion of the rigid sphere embedded in this medium.     

Spherical aberration correction using a liquid-crystal spatial-light modulator in off-axis electron holography

One can correct spherical aberration in a transmission electron microscope by using a newly developed aberration-correction method involving off-axis electron holography. In this method, a liquid-crystal spatial-light modulator (LC SLM) is employed during the holographic reconstruction step to compensate for spherical aberration. Application of this method to high-resolution off-axis electron holograms of fine gold particles is presented. The phase distribution of the corrected object wave is visualized by the Zernike phase-contrast method carried out with the same LC SLM.     

Phase correction of interferograms using digital all-pass filters

A method for the phase correction of interferograms in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is presented. It is shown that phase error can be canceled to within an arbitrary angular precision by a low-order digital all-pass filter. Such a filter only modifies the phase of the Fourier transform of the interferogram and keeps the magnitude unchanged, like the Mertz method, for example. However, our method minimizes the asymmetric apodization that results in photometric errors when using the Mertz method alone. A practical example is provided in which phase correction over a frequency range of 800 cm(-1) to 4000 cm(-1) using a 9-pole all-pass filter resulted in a photometric error of <0.01%, much less than the 0.3% error of the Mertz method. An alternative and faster (approximately 100 ms) approach is to use an all-pass filter with lower angular precision followed by the Mertz method. Removing most of the phase error with the filter brings the interferogram to an optimal state so that the residual phase error can be completely removed with the Mertz procedure without introducing photometric error. The method can be used in most experiments, including emission spectroscopy, where conventional techniques are inadequate. A simple all-pass filter design algorithm is given.     

Method for microbubble characterization using primary radiation force

Medical ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) have evolved from straight image enhancers to pathophysiological markers and drug delivery vehicles. However, the exact dynamic behavior of the encapsulated bubbles composing UCAs is still not entirely known. In this article, we propose to characterize full populations of UCAs, by looking at the translational effects of ultrasound radiation force on each bubble in a diluted population. The setup involves a sensitive, fully programmable transmitter/receiver and two unconventional, real-time display modes. Such display modes are used to measure the displacements produced by irradiation at frequencies in the range 2-8 MHz and pressures between 150 kPa and 1.5 MPa. The behavior of individual bubbles freely moving in a water tank is clearly observed, and it is shown that it depends on the bubble physical dimensions as well as on the viscoelastic properties of the encapsulation. A new method also is distilled that estimates the viscoelastic properties of bubble encapsulation by fitting the experimental bubble velocities to values simulated by a numerical model based on the modified Herring equation and the Bjerknes force. The fit results are a shear modulus of 18 MPa and a viscosity of 0.23 Pas for a thermoplastic PVC-AN shell. Phospholipid shell elasticity and friction parameter of the experimental contrast agent are estimated as 0.8 N/m and 1 10(-7) kg/s, respectively (shear modulus of 32 MPa and viscosity of 0.19 Pas, assuming 4-nm shell thickness).     

Phase correction of SAW ILRACs and RACs using Langmuir-Blodgett films

A novel method of adjusting surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) velocity in reflective array pulse compressors (RACs), including in-line devices (ILRACs) and hence correcting fabrication errors, is described. The velocity change is effected by depositing Langmuir-Blodgett films (LBFs) on the surface of the device. An accurate, stepped thickness profile can be created, enabling position-dependent velocity errors to be corrected. Experimental results for the velocity perturbation per LBF layer are first given together with data on temperature, humidity and age dependence. This is followed by the theory required to calculate the necessary thickness profile, including retrofitting to existing devices and allowing for the limitation to positive integer numbers of layers. Finally, experimental results are presented. In one device, simulated compressed pulse sidelobe levels are reduced by 19 dB.     

Shearwave dispersion ultrasound vibrometry (SDUV) for measuring tissue elasticity and viscosity

Characterization of tissue elasticity (stiffness) and viscosity has important medical applications because these properties are closely related to pathological changes. Quantitative measurement is more suitable than qualitative measurement (i.e., mapping with a relative scale) of tissue viscoelasticity for diagnosis of diffuse diseases where abnormality is not confined to a local region and there is no normal background tissue to provide contrast. Shearwave dispersion ultrasound vibrometry (SDUV) uses shear wave propagation speed measured in tissue at multiple frequencies (typically in the range of hundreds of Hertz) to solve quantitatively for both tissue elasticity and viscosity. A shear wave is stimulated within the tissue by an ultrasound push beam and monitored by a separate ultrasound detect beam. The phase difference of the shear wave between 2 locations along its propagation path is used to calculate shear wave speed within the tissue. In vitro SDUV measurements along and across bovine striated muscle fibers show results of tissue elasticity and viscosity close to literature values. An intermittent pulse sequence is developed to allow one array transducer for both push and detect function. Feasibility of this pulse sequence is demonstrated by in vivo SDUV measurements in swine liver using a dual transducer prototype simulating the operation of a single array transducer.     

Effects of phase aberration on tissue heat generation andtemperature elevation using therapeutic ultrasound

The effects of inhomogeneous propagation media on tissue heating patterns and steady-state temperature distributions are investigated analytically for continuous-wave therapeutic ultrasound using a random-phase screen model. Formulas for the statistical moments of the on-axis heat distribution, total heat deposited in a target volume, and axial temperature elevation are derived. Based on the statistical moments, we propose figures of merit to quantitatively assess therapeutic performance for a range of experimental parameters. The analysis relates statistical properties of the aberrator to those of heat generation in tissue. The mean on-axis heat distribution is substantially reduced in the focal zone, while its variance is increased at other axial positions. The amount of heat delivered to a target volume depends on the location of the target and the size of the volume. Compared to the results for homogeneous media, the greatest reduction in temperature increase occurs in the focal zone. Distortions in the temperature elevation patterns are greatest when the perfusion in tissue is large     

Near-diffraction-limited, high-energy, high-power, diode-pumped laser using thermal aberration correction with aspheric diamond-turned optics

We achieved a 1.3× diffraction-limited output beam with a pulse energy of 0.76 J at 60 Hz (average power of 46 W) at 1.064 μm from a diode-pumped Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier rod laser using a diamond-turned aspheric optic to compensate thermally induced phase distortion of the gain medium. The output was frequency doubled in KTP to 30 W (0.5-J pulse energy) and 2.4× diffraction-limited at 532 nm.     

Acoustic radiation force enhances targeted delivery of ultrasound contrast microbubbles: in vitro verification

Recent research has shown that targeted ultrasound contrast microbubbles achieve specific adhesion to regions of intravascular pathology, but not in areas of high flow. It has been suggested that acoustic radiation can be used to force free-stream microbubbles toward the target, but this has not been verified for actual targeted contrast agents. We present evidence that acoustic radiation indeed increases the specific targeted accumulation of microbubbles. Lipid microbubbles bearing an antibody as a targeting ligand were infused through a microcapillary flow chamber coated with P-selectin as the target protein. A 2.0 MHz ultrasonic pulse was applied perpendicular to the flow direction. Microbubble accumulation was observed on the flow chamber surface opposite the transducer. An acoustic pressure of 122 kPa enhanced microbubble adhesion up to 60-fold in a microbubble concentration range of 0.25 x 10(6) to 75 x 106) ml(-1). Acoustic pressure mediated the greatest adhesion enhancement at concentrations within the clinical dosing range. Acoustic pressure enhanced targeting nearly 80-fold at a wall shear rate of 1244 s(-1), suggesting that this mechanism is appropriate for achieving targeted microbubble delivery in high-flow vessels. Microbubble adhesion increased with the square of acoustic pressure between 25 and 122 kPa, and decreased substantially at higher pressures.     

Adaptive multi-element synthetic aperture imaging with motion and phase aberration correction

Multi-element synthetic aperture techniques employing subaperture processing over successive firing steps can produce good image quality with simple front-end hardware but are susceptible to motion and phase aberration artifacts. We explore correlation processing using fully common spatial frequencies of overlapping subapertures to adapt beamforming for motion and phase aberrations. Signals derived from the subset of elements representing common spatial frequencies exhibit significantly higher correlation coefficients than those from signals computed using the entire subaperture. In addition, the correlation coefficient decreases linearly with subaperture separation for complete subaperture signals, but remains nearly constant with subaperture separation if only common spatial frequencies are used. Adaptive multi-element synthetic aperture imaging with correlation processing using fully common spatial frequencies is tested on experimental RF data acquired from a diffuse scattering phantom using a 3.5 MHz, 128-element transducer array. The results indicate that common spatial frequencies can be used efficiently for correlation processing to correct motion and phase aberration for adaptive multi-element synthetic aperture imaging