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New medical ultrasound technology rides wave of the future
May 12, 2005A fully digital 4D ultrasound system is set to provide a 'next generation' integrated solution for medical imaging applications, allowing practitioners to provide faster treatment and improve therapeutic success rates.
Developed by ADUMS, an IST-funded project that ended in April 2005, the advanced high-quality imaging system will significantly reduce diagnostic time. In addition, the technology uses off-the-shelf computer hardware, making it a much cheaper alternative to expensive, purpose-produced ultrasound machines.
"The whole process of ultrasound devices has been moved away from the traditional hardware and is now implemented in software," says Dr Georgios Sakas, ADUMS project coordinator. "The hardware of the device creates mechanical waves and receives the echoes. Once the echoes are received, they are converted in digital form and the rest of the processing is performed by software."
A 4D ultrasound takes multiple images in rapid succession, creating a three-dimensional motion video, which is invaluable for diagnosis purposes.
An important factor in ultrasound image processing is the beamformer, the part of the system that provides the focusing for the ultrasound beam. Dr Stergios Stergiopoulos, president of the Canadian National Medical Technologies, one of the project partners, maintains that even today's most advanced state-of- the-art medical ultrasound imaging systems suffer from very poor image resolution.
"This is the result of the very small size of deployed arrays of sensors and the distortion effects by the influence of the human body's non-linear propagation characteristics," he says. "The ADUMS project technology replaces the beamformer of the ultrasound systems with the adaptive beamforming scheme that has been developed for the sonar array systems of the Canadian Navy. The ADUMS project results demonstrated that the new adaptive beamformer significantly improves, at very low cost, the image resolution capabilities of the ultrasound imaging systems, which will result in better diagnosis."
Until now, every new generation of the hardware component of ultrasound devices was, effectively, a complete redesign.
"On the other hand, ADUMS technology is based on a complete software approach, using off-the-shelf PC components," explains Dr Sakas. "Thus, a redesign from scratch will not be necessary and future improvements can be made by extensions of existing software."
The portability and the low cost of the 4D ultrasound systems allow medical practitioners and family physicians to have ready access to diagnostic imaging systems on a daily basis and will make a valuable contribution in the field of preventive medicine, adds Dr Stergiopoulos.
Consortium partners are currently using the new technology for their businesses and are promoting it to other organisations that use ultrasound technology.
IST Results
A 4D ultrasound takes multiple images in rapid succession, creating a three-dimensional motion video, which is invaluable for diagnosis purposes.
An important factor in ultrasound image processing is the beamformer, the part of the system that provides the focusing for the ultrasound beam. Dr Stergios Stergiopoulos, president of the Canadian National Medical Technologies, one of the project partners, maintains that even today's most advanced state-of- the-art medical ultrasound imaging systems suffer from very poor image resolution.
"This is the result of the very small size of deployed arrays of sensors and the distortion effects by the influence of the human body's non-linear propagation characteristics," he says. "The ADUMS project technology replaces the beamformer of the ultrasound systems with the adaptive beamforming scheme that has been developed for the sonar array systems of the Canadian Navy. The ADUMS project results demonstrated that the new adaptive beamformer significantly improves, at very low cost, the image resolution capabilities of the ultrasound imaging systems, which will result in better diagnosis."
Until now, every new generation of the hardware component of ultrasound devices was, effectively, a complete redesign.
"On the other hand, ADUMS technology is based on a complete software approach, using off-the-shelf PC components," explains Dr Sakas. "Thus, a redesign from scratch will not be necessary and future improvements can be made by extensions of existing software."
The portability and the low cost of the 4D ultrasound systems allow medical practitioners and family physicians to have ready access to diagnostic imaging systems on a daily basis and will make a valuable contribution in the field of preventive medicine, adds Dr Stergiopoulos.
Consortium partners are currently using the new technology for their businesses and are promoting it to other organisations that use ultrasound technology.
IST Results
Aging Current Events and Aging News RSSAn atomic-level look at an HIV accomplice
Since the discovery in 2007 that a component of human semen called SEVI boosts infectivity of the virus that causes AIDS, researchers have been trying to learn more about SEVI and how it works, in hopes of thwarting its infection-promoting activity.
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Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that exaggerated responses of the immune system explain why the elderly succumb to viral infections more readily than younger people.
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Scientists find molecular trigger that helps prevent aging and disease
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Residential design for persons with neurological disability
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Berkeley Lab Lends Expertise to India to Promote Energy Efficiency
ndia may rank only a distant fourth in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, behind China, the United States and Russia, but its rapid economic growth rate coupled with aging and inefficient energy infrastructure suggest dire environmental consequences if "business as usual" continues.
New neuroimaging analysis technique identifies impact of Alzheimer's disease gene in healthy brains
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Researchers find potential treatment for Huntington's disease
Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), the University of British Columbia's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of California, San Diego have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells (the electrical activity in the brain that allows nerve cells to communicate with one another) protects the brain from the misfolded proteins associated with Huntington's disease.
Neuroimaging provides insights into new treatment options for Alzheimer's disease
With about 35 million people around the world suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD) by the year 2010 and an expectation that these numbers will double every twenty years with approximately 115 million cases by 2050, pressure on healthcare systems worldwide will be intense.
'Escaped' proteins add to hearing loss in elderly, UF researchers find
Age-related hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder among the elderly. But scientists are still trying to figure out what cellular processes govern or contribute to the loss.
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