Ultrasound physics Flashcards
What two things determine strength of sound?
- Pressure amplitude
- Intensity
What is/how do you explain a harmonic frequency?
- A sinusoidal waveform is characterized by a single waveform (fundamental frequency).
- Any other wave shape contains additonal freuencies that are even or odd multiples of that original frequency.
- as the wave becomes less sinusoidal, the harmonics become stronger
How do you calculate beam intensity?
I = power (energy) ÷ area
How does intensity relate to pressure?
I is proportional to P2
(doubling pressure quadruples intensity)
Describe the relationship between speed of sound, wavelength and frequency?
Of these variabel, which are affected by the medium?
- speed of sound (c) = wavelength x frequency (f)
- frequency is unaffected by the propagation medium, unlike the other two
What are the frequencies for:
- infrasound
- audible sound
- ultrasound
- medical ultrasound
- infrasound = <15 cyles/s (Hz)
- Audible sound = 15 Hz- 20 kHz
- Ultrasound = >20 kHz
- medical ultrasound = 2-50 MHz
What is a period?
The time it takes for one cylce to occur
period = 1 ÷ frequency (f)
What two factors affect speed propagation and which is more important?
- Tissue stiffness and tissue density
- tissue stiffness effects>>tissue density
- propagation speed increases with increased stiffness
What is attenuation coefficient?
relative intensity loss that occurs with each cm the sound travels (Att coeff = dB/cm)
How do you calculate atteunation?
a (dB) = u (dB/cm) x L (cm)
increases in attenuation coeff or path length will increas attenuation
What is the attenuation coefficient in soft tissue?
about 0.5 dB/cm for each MHz of frequency
a (dB) = 0.5 (dB/cm) x f (MHz) ÷ L (cm)
How do you calculate relative intensity?
Relativ intensity (dB) = 10 log [Iincident/Iecho]
What is the relation ship between acoustic impedance (Z), density (p) and propagation speed (c)?
Z (kg/m2sec) = p (kg/m3) x c (m/sec)
How do you calculate the reflection pressure coefficient? How can the Intensity Reflection Coefficient (IRC) be extrapolated from this? page 5
Rp = Pr ÷ Pi = [(Z2 - Z1) ÷ (Z2 + Z1)]
Since intensity (I) is proportional to P2, then:
IRC = Ir ÷ Ii = [(Z2 - Z1) ÷ (Z2 + Z1)]2
How does the intensity transmission coefficient (ITC) relate to the intensity reflection coefficient (IRC)?
ITC = 1 - IRC
What is the critical angle?
angle of incidence of the sound beam with a boundry b/w two media that when exceeded will cause total reflection.
Critical angle = SinØc = c1 ÷ c2
What is Snell’s law?
[sinØi ÷ SinØt] = C1 ÷ C2
If C2 > C1, then the angle of transmission is > the angle of incidence
If C2< C1, then the angle of transmission is < the angle of incidence
What determines the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric element?
- The thickness of the piezoelectric element (0.2 - 1mm)
- Propagation speed of the element material (4-6 mm/us)
f (MHz) = [Ct (mm/us)] ÷ 2 x thickness (mm)
What is the pulse repitition period?
Time from the beginning of one pulse to the beginning of the next: PRP = 1 ÷ PRF
How does dampening relate to bandwidth?
Shortening the pulse broadens the bandwidth
What are the effects of dampening and what are some advantages and disadvantages?
- Reduces the spatial pulse length
- Reduces the pulse duration
Advantages:
- improves axial resolution in the near field
- allows harmonic imaging
Disadvantages
- reduces ultrasound amplitude, reducing efficiency and sensitivity of the system
What is Q factor?
Describes the bandwidth of the sound emanating from the transducer:
Q = f0 ÷ bandwidth
What is the difference between a High Q transducer and a Low Q transducer?
- High Q transducer:
- Narrow bandwidth (little dampening)
- long spatial pulse length and decreased resolution
- Low Q transducer:
- Wide bandwidth (more dampening)
- small spatial pulse length and increased axial resolution
What is Thermal Index (TI)?
TI = the ratio of acoustic power (W) produced by the transducer to the power required to raise the tissue in the beam area by 1°C
What is mechanical Index?
Value that estimates the likelihood of cavitation by the ultrasound beam
What is ISPTA? And what are the current FDA recommendations?
Spatial peak temporal average intensity (ISPTA) -
- It is a good indicator of thermal US effects
- FDA recommendations
- ISPTA diagnostic ultrasound <100 mW/cm2
- pulsed doppler <1000 mW/cm2
What are methods to decarease “exposure”?
- Keep power low
- Increase gain instead of increasing power
- Choose scanned modes over unscnanned modes (B is less than M)
- Decrease pulse length
- Use appropraite transducer
What is I SPPA?
Spatial peak pulse average intensity -
- indicator for potential mechanical bioeffects and cavitation
- required by FDA
What are 3 ways harmonic ultrasound imporves image quality?
- harmonic beam is narrower, flatter and has twice the frequency as the fundamental frequency
- results in improved lateral resolution, elevational resolution and axial resolution
- grating lobe artifacts are eliminated
- the haroni beam is generated at a depth beyond where some of artefactual problems occur so the image degredation they cause is reduced or eliminated e.g superficial reverberation)
How do you increase axial resolution?
- decrease the spatial pulse length
- using higher frequency → decreases wavelength, thus decreasing SPL
- increase dampening → lower Q, reduces pulse duration, decreasing SPL
What does beam width depend on?
- aperture width
- focal distance
- wavelength