Portable 3D/4D Ultrasound Diagnostic Imaging System
Abstract
The rapid diagnosis of invisible internal injury in an austere and hostile front-line operational environment remains a challenge for (Canadian Forces) medical and search and rescue personnel. The availability of a portable 4D-ultrasound imaging system with a single probe, providing high image resolution and deep penetration, is considered by (civilian) medical practitioners and their military health services counterparts as exceedingly helpful, if not essential in supporting triage and medical decisions to save lives. However, portable and easy-to-use 4D non-invasive medical imaging systems are not yet commercially available, primarily because of unresolved major technological and engineering challenges. Available portable ultrasound systems only provide 2D images, requiring a medical professional to mentally integrate multiple images to develop a 3D impression of the scanned objects. This practice is time-consuming, inefficient, and requires a highly skilled operator to administer the scanning procedure. Defence R&D Canada (DRDC) is developing a Portable 3D/4D Ultrasound Diagnostic Imaging System (PUDIS) to address the above-mentioned challenges. Our proposed approach to address the conventional 2D ultrasound imaging limitations is to implement 3D adaptive beamformers in portable 4D ultrasound imaging systems, that can improve image resolution for low frequency planar array probes. Along these lines, DRDC has allocated significant investments to develop an advanced, fully-digital 4D (3D-spatial + 1D-temporal) ultrasound imaging technology for improving image resolution and facilitating auto-diagnostic applications to detect non-visible internal injuries, based on the volumetric imaging outputs provided by a 4D ultrasound imaging system that includes: A 32x32 sensor planar array ultrasound probe with a fully digital data acquisition peripheral; A portable ultrasound computing architecture consisting of a cluster of DSPs and CPUs
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA581796
Entities
People
- Pang Shek
- Stergios Stergiopoulos
Organizations
- Defence Research and Development Canada