This work presents a feasibility study in estimating the displacement of a moving tendon using Pulsed-Wave Doppler ultrasound. The displacement estimation is accomplished using a tendon mimicking experiment, by performing a Fourier analysis of audio-based output signals from a commercial ultrasound scanner. The feasibility study shows that our proposed technique is better able to measure the actual tendon displacement, in comparison to the scanner’s onboard software, for the purposes of determining near-surface tissue excursion (i.e. displacement). The proposed technique also demonstrates that data acquisition from the audio output signal of a portable ultrasound scanner is possible, and can be processed with custom software to achieve our purpose. The motivation for this work is to noninvasively and dynamically monitor the displacement of the major tendons in the human lower arm. Such tendon displacement monitoring can provide an important diagnostic tool for people with hand injuries.
The accuracy of Pulsed-Wave Doppler Ultrasound displacement measurements of a slow moving "tendon-like" string was investigated in this study. This was accomplished by estimating string displacements using an audio-based Fourier analysis of a Pulsed-Wave Doppler signal from a commercial ultrasound scanner. Our feasibility study showed that the proposed technique is much more accurate at estimating the actual string displacement in comparison to the scanner's onboard software. Furthermore, this study also shows that a real-time Doppler data acquisition from an ultrasound scanner is possible for the ultimate purpose of real-time biological tendon displacement monitoring.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.