Color Doppler spatial resolution measurements with an oscillating thin film test object

Phillips, Daniel; McAleavey, Stephen A.; Parker, Kevin J.

doi:10.1109/ultsym.1997.661864

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Phillips et al developed an oscillating thin film test object, consisting of a number of precisely deposited sub-resolvable scatters for making spatial resolution and sensitivity measurements in colour Doppler [60,61]. The thin film consisted of a thin planar substrate that was acoustically matched to the surrounding media.…”

Section: Other Doppler Test Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of Doppler ultrasound quality assurance protocols and test devices

Browne¹

2014

Physica Medica

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a b s t r a c tIn this paper, an overview of Doppler ultrasound quality assurance (QA) testing will be presented in three sections. The first section will review the different Doppler ultrasound parameters recommended by professional bodies for use in QA protocols. The second section will include an evaluation and critique of the main test devices used to assess Doppler performance, while the final section of this paper will discuss which of the wide range of test devices have been found to be most suitable for inclusion in Doppler QA programmes. Pulsed Wave Spectral Doppler, Colour Doppler Imaging QA test protocols have been recommended over the years by various professional bodies, including the UK's Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), the American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). However, despite the existence of such recommended test protocols, very few commercial or research test devices exist which can measure the full range of both PW Doppler ultrasound and colour Doppler imaging performance parameters, particularly quality control measurements such as: (i) Doppler sensitivity (ii) colour Doppler spatial resolution (iii) colour Doppler temporal resolution (iv) colour Doppler velocity resolution (v) clutter filter performance and (vi) tissue movement artefact suppression. In this review, the merits of the various commercial and research test devices will be considered and a summary of results obtained from published studies which have made use of some of these Doppler test devices, such as the flow, string, rotating and belt phantom, will be presented.© 2014 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. IntroductionThe importance of assessing the quality of Doppler ultrasound systems is apparent considering that the result or product of Doppler ultrasound examinations is frequently directed toward a well-defined clinical question concerning blood flow [1]. For example, Doppler ultrasound is used to determine the level of stenosis by examining the changes in blood flow in the vessel of interest, and to determine whether flow is present in a tight stenosis. Another use is to determine if changes have occurred in blood flow in transplanted kidneys [1e3]. Indeed, the use of Doppler ultrasound has become more widespread over the last decade, largely due to advances in transducer technology, digital electronics and clutter filter algorithms, with a corresponding improvement in the Doppler sensitivity, axial resolution within the sample volume and the low velocity detection capabilities of modern systems [3]. With this increasing use of Doppler ultrasound techniques, it is of paramount importance that ultrasound systems meet the requirements of each of the different clinical applications and that the quality of the information is maintained throughout the lifetime of the ultrasound system. To this end, performance and quality control tests are carried out to determine firstly that th...

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Section: Other Doppler Test Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of Doppler ultrasound quality assurance protocols and test devices

Browne¹

2014

Physica Medica

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“…oscillating thinfilm, or a modified string phantom consisting of two strings with adjustable separations. 5,6,8 The acoustic grid measured lateral spatial resolution for separations between 0.5 mm and 10 mm, 6 but the arrangement of the acoustic grids had potential to produce diffraction of the ultrasound beam. The modified string phantom provided measures of spatial resolution between 0.5 and 10 mm, 5 but measurements were carried out in water using Oring rubber, which has a significantly higher backscatter value than blood.…”

Section: Continuous and Pulsed Wave Spectral Doppler And Duplex Dopplmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, previous studies have evaluated colour Doppler spatial resolution based on an acoustic grid, an oscillating thin-film, or a modified string phantom consisting of two strings with adjustable separations. 5,6,8 The acoustic grid measured lateral spatial resolution for separations between 0 . 5 and 10 mm, 6 but the arrangement of the acoustic grids had potential to produce diffraction of the ultrasound beam.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The third study of colour Doppler spatial resolution was performed by Phillips et al who constructed an oscillating thinfilm test object consisting of a number of precisely deposited sub-resolvable scatteres. 8 Unfortunately, the analysis of the images was time-consuming and not practical for quality control tests in a busy ultrasound department.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colour Doppler Spatial Resolution Performance Testing

Browne¹,

Brown²,

Hoskins³

et al. 2007

Ultrasound

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Background: Colour Doppler has become an integral part of many clinical ultrasound investigations, but evaluation of the spatial resolution of colour Doppler scanners remains problematic due to a lack of suitable test phantoms. Methods:The aims of this study were to evaluate two designs of colour Doppler spatial resolution testphantom, to compare their suitability for determining the spatial resolution of five commercially available ultrasound scanners. For the purpose of this study, spatial resolution was defined as the minimum resolvable distance between two channels of flow. Phantom 1 consisted of two diverging flowchannels. Phantom 2 consisted of four pairs of parallel channels with different separations.Results and Discussion: Both designs of phantom highlighted a number of advantages and disadvantages. In principle, phantom 1 allowed the minimal resolvable distance to be identified based on imaging a continuous range of separations, but in practice, the average separation being probed was uncertain, and the minimum separation between vessels of 1 mm was too large to test the resolutions of some of the scanners we studied. Phantom 2 was easier to setup and had a narrower minimum separation of 0.6 mm, but only four nominal separations were tested.Evaluation of five scanners using each prototype phantom suggested typical resolutions of 1.2 mm or lower. Many of the scanners possessed resolutions of approximately 0.6 mm or less, which was the minimum separation we were able to test. The poorest lateral resolution of approximately 1.2 mm was observed for a 13 year old scanner with curvilinear 4 MHz phased array transducer. Conclusion:Construction of the 'perfect' testobject for measuring colour Doppler resolution remains a considerable challenge. Further work will be required to produce acoustically realistic flow phantoms capable of testing the ability of colour Doppler to resolve increasingly narrow flow separations.

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Color Doppler spatial resolution measurements with an oscillating thin film test object

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

A review of Doppler ultrasound quality assurance protocols and test devices

A review of Doppler ultrasound quality assurance protocols and test devices

Colour Doppler Spatial Resolution Performance Testing

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