US Flashcards
What is a sound wave?
Mechanical energy that produces vibrations when propagating through material.
Sound requires a medium to travel in.
These vibrations produce alternating areas of high pressure (compression) and low pressure (rarefaction).
What is frequency?
Rate of change between compression and rarefaction - given in Hertz.
Number of times the wave oscillates through a cycle each second.
What is wavelength?
Distance between areas of compression
Equation for speed
Speed = wavelength x frequency
Speed is thought to be constant (in a particular medium), so that an increase in frequency decreases in wavelength - and vice versa.
How does speed change in different materials?
Speed is based on compressibility of something.
Very compressible (air) will have a very low speed. Not very compressible (bone) will have a very fast speed.
US machine assumes everything travels at 1540 m/s in tissue.
What is the assumed speed of sound waves in tissue?
1540 m/s
What affect does speed have on frequency?
None. The frequency is the same, irrelevant of the sound speed in various media.
Wavelength changes in media.
How is relative intensity measured in US?
The dB.
A change of 10 in the dB scale corresponds to two orders of magnitude (100 times) and so forth. The dB is based on a log 10 scale.
Reducing the sound intensity to 10% is -10 dB
Reducing to 1% is -20 dB
Reducing to 0.1% is -30dB
Loss of 3 dB (-3 dB) represents a 50% loss of signal intensity (power)
The tissue that reduces the US intensity by 3 dB is considered “half-value” thickness.
What does a change in 10 in the dB scale correspond to?
Two orders of magnitude (100 times) and so forth. The dB is based on a log 10 scale.
Reducing the sound intensity to 10% is what in dB?
-10 dB
Reducing the sound intensity to 1% is what in dB?
-20 dB
Reducing the sound intensity to 0.1% is what in dB?
-30 dB
A loss of 3 dB represents what?
50% loss in signal intensity (power)
What is half value thickness in US?
The tissue that reduces the US intensity by 3 dB
What are the types of US interaction with matter?
Reflection
Refraction
Scattering
Absorption
What is reflection in ultrasound?
US energy gets reflected at a boundary between two tissues b/c of the differences in the acoustic impedance of the two tissues.
Large difference in “stiffness” results in a large reflection of energy.
What is impedance?
Z = density x speed of sound.
Compressibility of a spring.
What is refraction?
Bending of the sound wave caused by a change in speed.
Change in direction of transmitted US energy at a tissue boundary when the beam is not perpendicular to said boundary.
Frequency doesn’t change, but speed might.
Influenced by speed change - which is based on tissue compression and angle of incidence.
Hits straight - part will bound straight back and part goes straight through.
Strikes at an angle - part will be reflected and the other part will be refracted - with severity of this refraction depending on the speed difference of the two media.
What influences refraction?
Speed change - based on tissue compression
Angle of incidence
No refraction occurs if the speed of sound is the same in the two media or with perpendicular incidence.
Can you have total reflection?
If the speed difference and angle of incidence is great enough (exceeds the “critical angle”).
What are the two types of scattering in US?
Specular (smooth)- reflector dimensions are larger than the wavelength of the incident - strength of reflection is highly angle dependent.
Non-specular (diffuse)- scattering surfaces are about the size of a wavelength or smaller - angle has no effect on strength.
What are specular reflectors?
Smooth reflectors
Reflector dimensions are larger than the wavelength of the incident - strength of reflection is highly angle dependent.
What are non-specular reflectors?
Diffuse reflectors
Scattering surfaces are about the size of a wavelength or smaller - angle has no effect on strength.
High frequency = small wavelength = surfaces appear more rough = more scatter.
What is strength of reflection dependent on with specular reflectors?
Angle dependent
Does angle have effect on non-specular reflectors?
No. Surfaces appear more rough = more scatter
What is absorption?
Sound energy gets turned into heat.
Increases with frequency.
What is attenuation?
Loss of intensity of the US beam from both absorption and scattering in the medium.
Degree of attenuation varies widely depending on the type of tissue involved
Rule of thumb for “soft tissue” is 0.5 dB per cm per MHz or 0.5 (db/cm)/MHz
What is the rule of thumb for “soft tissue” attenuation?
0.5 (dB/cm)/MHz
A 2 MHz US beam will have twice the attenuation of a 1 MHz beam
A 10 MHz beam will have 10 times the attenuation per unit distance
It is logarithmic- the beam intensity is exponentially attenuated with distance.
What is half value thickness in US?
Thickness of tissue necessary to attenuate the incident intensity by 50% which is equal to a 3 dB reduction in intensity.
As the frequency increases, the HVT decreases.
What is the relation between frequency at HVT?
As frequency increases, the HVT decreases.
What determines the strength of the echoes?
Angle and impedance
What is impedance?
The degree of stiffness in a tissue. The differences in tissue impedance (stiffness) determines the strength of surface reflection.
What is the unit used for impedance?
The Rayl
You will get a big reflection if?
There is a large difference in impedance.
Example skin and air - thats why you gotta lube it up (gel) otherwise you can’t transmit any sound.
Is the speed of sound constant in tissue?
No - changes (via wavelength) depending on the compressibility of the tissue (slow in air, fast in bone).
How does the machine know what the speed is in the various tissues the sound traveled through?
It doesn’t.
It just assumes it’s always 1540 m/s - which can lead to artifacts.
What makes the sound have “bend”?
Changes in the speed of sound - which occur as it travels through different media - creating a “bending” or “refraction” as described by Snells Law.
More or less scatter with high frequency probes?
More - smaller wavelength makes surfaces look rougher (non-specular).
Causes scatter
More or less attenaution with high frequency probes?
More
What are Piezoelectric Materials?
A crystal (or ceramic) and is the functional component of the transducer.
Can be quartz, but is usually lead-zinc-titanate (PZT).
Has a well-deined molecular arrangement of electrical dipoles. When mechanically compressed their normally organized alignment gets disturbed from equilibrium - can be measured and recorded.
What are the transducer crystals made of?
Piezoelectric materials
Can be quartz, but is usually lead-zinc-titanate (PZT).
What are resonance transducers?
Made to operate in a “resonance” mode, where short durations of voltage (usually 150 V) are applied, causing the PZT to vibrate at a natural resonance frequency.
What determines the frequency of a probe?
Determined from the speed of sound in and the thickness of the piezoelectric material.
Only way to change frequency is to change the probe. Wavelength changes to accomodate changing velocity in different media.
What determines the thickness of the transducer?
Thickness of the transducer is 1/2 the wavelength.
Lower frequency is seen with thicker crystals and higher frequency is seen with thinner crystals.
How do you change frequency in ultrasound?
Change probe
What is a dampening block?
Sits behind the crystal and absorbs the backward directed US energy.
Also dampens the transducer vibration to create a pulse with a short spatial pulse length - needed to preserve detail along the beam axis (axial resolution).
The process of dampening introduces a broadband frequency spectrum.
What are the characteristics of a Thin Dampening Block?
Light Damping
High Q
Long spatial pulse length
Narrow Bandwidth
What are the characteristics of a thick dampening block?
Heavy Damping
Low Q
Short Spatial pulse length
Broad bandwidth
What are the “Q”s of thin and thick dampening blocks?
Thin bock = high Q
Thick block = low Q
What are the spatial pulse lengths of thin and thick dampening blocks?
Thin block = long spatial pulse length
Thick block = short spatial pulse length
What are the bandwidths of thin and thick blocks?
Thin block = narrow bandwidth
Thick block = broad bandwidth
What dampening is used for Doppler?
Low dampening (high Q) - narrow bandwidth - preserve velocity information.
What dampening gives you high spatial (axial) resolution?
Heavy dampening (low Q) - broad bandwidth - fewer interference effects and therefore more uniformity.
What is the matching layer and what is it’s purpose?
Gives the transducer an interface between the transducer element and the tissue.
Minimizes the acoustic impedance differences between the transducer and the patient.
Made of stuff that has an acoustic impedance intermediate to soft tissue and the transducer material.
What is the optimal matching layer thickness?
1/4 the the wavelength.
What are the two types of transducer arrays?
Linear (which include curved) - sequenced
Phased - “activation/reactivation” types
What are linear (sequenced) array transducers?
Each element is on it’s own. Fire and receive on their own - no use of interference patterns/steering.
What is the width of the transducer?
Sum of all the individual elements
What are linear array transducers good for?
Peds and superficial things (carotids, leg veins, testicles, thyroids).
What is a curved probe?
Still a “linear” probe - operates with individual elements firing on their own.
Face is curved - scan lines diverge deeper into the image - gives you a wider FOV for deeper structures. Used for abd.
What are phased array transducers?
Groups of elements fire in multiples using interference patterns to steer the beam - operating like a search light scanning a dark room.
B/c of this steering, the probes can be made smaller.
What are the advantages of phased array transducers?
Probes can be made smaller
Good for limited acoustic windows (in between ribs, transvaginal etc…)
Characteristics of Linear Transducer Arrays?
256-512 elements
Large
Sequenced firing of small group of adjacent elements (20ish)
A rectangular FOV is produced (trapezoidal with durved)
Characteristics of Phased Transducer Arrays?
64-128 Elements
Small
Elements are activated and reactivated - in a phased pattern
Time delays in electrical activation can make it possible to steer and focus, without moving the probe.
What are the two beam components?
Converging beam - near field (Fresnel Zone)
Diverging beam - far field (Fraunhofer zone)
What is the near field?
Fresnel Zone
Convergence of the near field occurs b/c of the multiple constructive and destructive interference patterns
Length is dependent on transducer frequency and transducer diameter