REAL-TIME ANGULAR SCATTER IMAGING-SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED TISSUE CONTRASTIN DIAGNOSTIC ULTRASOUND IMAGES

A new type of real-time ultrasound imaging system has been developed. In contrast to conventional systems, which process only echoes scatter ed directly back from tissue to form an image, this system images tiss ue by displaying energy scattered at other angles. In its present form , the system uses one 32 element, 2.4 MHz phased array transducer in t ransmit and a second, spatially separate 32 element, 2.4 MHz phased ar ray transducer in receive, to detect sound which is scattered away fro m the transmit transducer. In order to form an image line, the transmi t transducer sends into the body a steered pulse, which is tracked dyn amically from the side by the receive transducer. The signal detected by the receive transducer is processed in the same manner as in a stan dard B-mode phased array system. The final display format is a gray sc ale sector originating from the transmit transducer. Real-time angular scatter images of phantom and in vivo targets have been formed and co mpared to standard backscatter B-mode images of the same targets.