Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus
AssigneeNew York University
InventorManlio Abele
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ultrasonic probe for propagating an ultrasonic surface wave which is constrained along the probe with the evanescent pressure field penetrating the subject in a direction orthogonal to the axis of the probe. The ultrasonic probe may then be placed about a plurality of orientations, passing the evanescent pressure field through the subject along the plurality of orientations and detecting the loss of energy in each successive pressure field propagation. A data processing system for processing and correlating each successive detected energy loss in each propagation direction can produce a resultant computed tomographic image of a defined plane through the subject.
Claims19
An ultrasound diagnostic device for examining a subject comprising
- an elongated ultrasonic probe including means for repeatedly propagating and constraining ultrasonic surface waves along the length of said probe in a direction such that the evanescent pressure field penetrates said subject in a direction orthogonal to said surface wave,
- means for moving said ultrasonic probe about said subject along a plurality of orientations for passing said evanescent pressure field through said subject along said plurality of orientations,
- means for detecting the loss of energy in each evanescent pressure field resulting from absorption by said subject during each successive propagation, and
- means for processing and correlating each successive detected loss of energy in each propagation for producing a computed tomographic image of a defined plane through said subject.
An ultrasound diagnostic device for examining a subject comprising an enclosure penetratable by said subject, said enclosure containing a first liquid having a first speed of sound characteristic, and an ultrasonic cylindrical probe containing an ultrasound transducer, said probe containing a second liquid having a second speed of sound characteristic which is higher than said first speed characteristic, said ultrasound transducer producing an ultrasound wave which is constrained within said probe such that only the evanescent field of said surface wave penetrates said subject, and means responsive to the energy loss in said ultrasound wave to provide an indication of absorption by said subject, said energy loss being represented by a pure amplitude loss.
A process for ultrasound diagnosis comprising the steps of positioning a subject proximate an ultrasound probe, propagating a plurality of ultrasound surface waves constrained within said probe and its evanescent field penetrating said subject, and measuring the amplitude loss in said surface wave after traversal of said probe, said amplitude loss being a measure of subject area absorption of energy from said evanescent field, anomalies within said subject area material representing higher absorption than non-anomalous material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.