• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.368-373
• /
• 2009

A human tissue mimicking phantom is constructed to assess the performance of a medical ultrasound elasticity imaging system. In a human body, the tumor or cancer is stiffer than its surrounding normal tissue. A technique fur imaging the elasticity of such a tissue is referred to as elastography. Homogeneous elasticity phantoms with differing Young's moduli are constructed using a plastic hardener and softener to simulate the mechanical characteristics of a diseased human tissue. The Young's modulus of the fabricated homogeneous phantom materials were measured from 11.1 to 79.6 kPa depending on the mixing ratio of the amount of the hardener to that of the softener. An ultrasound lesion mimicking phantom was made of these materials, and ultrasound elasticity imaging was performed on it. It is confirmed in this paper that the fabricated plastic-based elasticity phantom is useful in representing the elastic characteristics of a human tissue.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.83-91
• /
• 2024

The purpose of this study was to determine the doppler fluid effects of carbonated water (CBW) in a bi-directional flow phantom model. A bi-directional flow phantom model was chosen to realize arterial and venous flow, and the structure of the inner and outer tanks allowed for fluid circulation and also made the size of the phantom small. Carbonated water (CBW), salt fluid (SAF), sugar fluid (SUF), and distilled water (DW) were used as fluids, and ultrasound scans were performed at depths of 1.5 cm and 3.0 cm from the surface of the tank, using B-mode and color Doppler effects. All fluids tested showed color Doppler effects, but CBW had the highest doppler shift and the least variation with depth. In conclusion, we determined that CBW was the most suitable fluid to be used as a doppler fluid and confirmed that the bubbles dissolved in CBW act as doppler scatterers, just like red blood cells inside human blood. Therefore, it is possible that CBW can be used as a blood-mimicking fluid in doppler ultrasound phantoms through further research, and this study will provide basic data.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.21-23
• /
• 1984

Temperature homogeniety and stationary temperature is the most important thermometric considerations for the clinical use of hyperthermia. A thermal mapping was done in a phantom with thermocouple during hyperthermia which was induced by 1.0MHz,$0.7\~0.8watts/cm^2$ ultrasound and unfocused 2.5cm-diameter transducer. The results were as follows 1. Effective heating range$(42.5^{|circ}C\pm0.5^{\circ}C)$ were obtained 3cm in width and 4cm in depth from surface of phantom and temperature distribution was relatively uniform. 2. There was little heating effect more than 2cm away from transducer axis and more than 5cm in depth. 3. There was hot spots(more than $43^{\circ}C$) in $2.0\pm0.5cm$ depth from transducer along tranducer axis.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.430-437
• /
• 2018

Ultrasonic attenuation is an important parameter in Quantitative Ultrasound and many algorithms have been proposed to improve estimation accuracy and repeatability for multiple independent estimates. In this work, we propose an improved algorithm for estimating ultrasonic attenuation utilizing the optimal frequency compounding technique based on stochastic noise model. We formulate mathematical compounding equations in the AWGN channel model and solve optimization problems to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio for multiple frequency components. Individual estimates are calculated by the reference phantom method which provides very stable results in uniformly attenuating regions. We also propose the guideline to select frequency ranges of reflected RF signals. Simulation results using numerical phantoms show that the proposed optimal frequency compounding method provides improved accuracy while minimizing estimation bias. The estimation variance is reduced by only 16% for the un-compounding case, whereas it is reduced by 68% for the uniformly compounding case. The frequency range corresponding to the half-power for reflected signals also provides robust and efficient estimation performance.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.114-120
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the status of quality control using multipurpose phantom of ultrasound equipment used in hospital of veterinary college in South Korea by using ATS-539 multipurpose phantom so as to examine quantitative and objective new image evaluation method. Specialists discussed and analyzed multipurpose phantom images acquired by using convex transducer of 10 ultrasound imaging devices, currently used in 9 veterinary colleges, at 4.0-6.0 MHz. Total 8 items that can be measured with ATS-539 multipurpose phantom including dead zone, vertical and horizontal measurement, axial/lateral resolution, sensitivity, focal zone, functional resolution and gray scale/dynamic range were evaluated. For qualitative evaluation, valid decisions were made based on dead zone, axial/lateral resolution, and gray scale/dynamic range which are resolution index, and coefficient of variation (COV) and blind referenceless image spatial quality evaluator (BRISQUE) were found to increase objectivity. As a result of experiment, all the targeted ultrasonic devices were found appropriate from qualitative evaluation items of dead zone, axial/lateral resolution, and gray scale/dynamic range. In other evaluation items, they were found to be appropriate from focal zone and vertical measurement of quantitative evaluation while inappropriate from horizontal measurement, sensitivity, and functional resolution. COV value was 0.12 ± 0.04, and BRISQUE value was 47.77 ± 2.77, both analysis results show that the noise level of all ultrasonic devices was located within tolerance range. Upon image examination using ATS-539 multipurpose phantom, they were 100% appropriate with inspection standards of dead zone, axial/lateral resolution, and gray scale/dynamic range, and besides, focal zone and functional resolution can be used as evaluation items. In the field of veterinary medicine, 8 standard items using ATS-539 multipurpose phantom and image evaluation items using COV and BRISQUE can be used as standards for quality control of ultrasonography machine.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.390-398
• /
• 2022

Ultrasound examination using ultrasound equipment is an ultrasound device that images human organs using sound waves and is used in various areas such as diagnosis, follow-up, and treatment of diseases. However, if the quality of ultrasound equipment is not guaranteed, the possibility of misdiagnosis increases, and the diagnosis rate decreases. Accordingly, The Korean Society of Radiology and Korea society of Ultrasound in Medicine presented guidelines for quality management of ultrasound equipment using ATS-539 phantom. The DenseNet201 classification algorithm shows 99.25% accuracy and 5.17% loss in the Dead Zone, 97.52% loss in Axial/Lateral Resolution, 96.98% accuracy and 20.64% loss in Sensitivity, 93.44% accuracy and 22.07% loss in the Gray scale and Dynamic Range. As a result, it is the best and is judged to be an algorithm that can be used for quantitative evaluation. Through this study, it can be seen that if quantitative evaluation using artificial intelligence is conducted in the qualitative evaluation item of ultrasonic equipment, the reliability of ultrasonic equipment can be increased with high accuracy.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.399-409
• /
• 2012

In this paper we propose a method for measuring the shear modulus of an ultrasound soft tissue phantom using an acoustic radiation force. The proposed method quantitatively determines the shear modulus based on the rise time of a displacement induced by an acoustic radiation force at the focal point of a focused ultrasound beam. The shear wave speed and shear modulus obtained from the proposed method and a shear wave propagation method were compared to verify the validity of the proposed method. In the shear wave propagation method, the shear modulus is first computed by measuring the propagating speed of a shear wave induced in a phantom by a limited-diffraction transmit field, and then was compared to that obtained with the proposed method in an ultrasound data acquisition system calibrated based on the first computed shear modulus. The relative errors between the two methods were found to be 4% for shear wave speed and less than 9% for shear modulus, confirming the usefulness of the proposed method.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.31-38
• /
• 2016

For the patients with bladder dysfunction, measurement of urine volume inside the bladder is very critical to avoid bladder failure. In measuring urine volume inside a bladder, low-resolution 3D ultrasound images are widely used. However, urine volume estimation from 3D ultrasound images is prone to big errors and inconsistency because of low spatial resolution and low signal-to-noise ratio of ultrasound images. We developed a new robust volume estimation algorithm which is not computationally expensive. We tested the algorithm on a lab-built ultrasound bladder phantom and volunteers. The average error rate of the human bladder volume estimation was 5.9% which was better than the commercial machine.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 2010

The setting parameters of ultrasound scanner give influences to change of image. Sonographers have used a Matlab program to make Low Contrast Sensitivity(LCS) value and compared original images in order to evaluate the use of the supersonic diagnosis machinery. We confirmed the change of image in Grayscale values using Photoshop program. Experiment equipment of our research used A Medison Accuvix V10, A Multi-Tissue Ultrasound Phantom(040 GSE) of CHRIS Company, A Adobe Photoshop CS4 Program, A Convex Probe, A USB memory stick, A Probe Fixation Equipment. The method used Gain, Dynamic Range(DR) of the setting parameters of ultrasound scanner and researched Gain and DR was set to 10 dB. We changed the different settings to see the changes of images using Grayscale values of a Photoshop program about tissue images of a phantom. This study evaluated DR and Gain whether it is an image controller to get the optimum contrast to produce an image to see the how effect on the images. We did not use Gateway in supersonic diagnosis machinery. We can easily open to open the files through Photoshop program before we get Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine(DICOM) files use USB memory stick in supersonic diagnosis machinery. When we diagnosed the lesion of the patient with ultrasound, the contrast and the Gray scale value of image are very important. In this research, we determined the optimum setting parameters that provided useful information to diagnose disease and evaluated the change of improved images.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.61-69
• /
• 2008

Diagnosis of breast ultrasound is better than mammography in the early detection of breast cancer, but, it is difficult to detect microcalcification. We studied on detection for calcification of breast tissue using acoustic resonance and power doppler with 7.5 MHz linear probe in breast ultrasound. We first constructed breast tissue phantom made of gelatin and saw breast, and then observed calcification by the change of external vibration. Calcification injected breast tissue phantom visualized the difference for brightness and region of color in ROI regions of power doppler. Acoustic resonance almost never visualized in low frequency regions, plateau constituted in about 300-400 Hz and colors vanished according to the increase of frequency.