Estimating the Medical Ultrasound in Vivo Power Spectrum

This thesis considered the estimation of the in vivo power spectrum from the backscattered waveforms by finding the total attenuation along the propagation path. The total attenuation was estimated by assuming model for the scatterers (i.e., spherically symmetric Gaussian impedance distributions of unknown size) and then solving for the size and total attenuation simultaneously from the frequency dependence of the backscattered spectrum. The attenuation and scatterer size could be accurately and precisely estimated provided that sufficient frequency data was available. The accuracy and precision were significantly improved by increasing the range of frequencies used in the estimate. In addition, some improvement could be obtained by increasing the length of the window used to gate the backscattered RF echoes (i.e., samples in frequency domain independent). Although only applied to the estimation of scatterer size in this thesis, the estimation of the in vivo power spectrum using the developed methods could be applied to other tissue characterization procedures as well as estimating the temperature increase in the tissue from ultrasound exposures.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bigelow, Timothy Allen

Contributors dc:contributor

• William D. O'Brien, Jr

• Health Sciences, Radiology

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3130881

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80854