Three dimensional endoscopic image of a blood vessel using high frequency ultrasound

This paper describes a high frequency ultrasound (US) imaging system for ob servation of small tissues and a virtual endoscopic image of a blood vessel . This system consists of a US probe with a central frequency of 32 MHz, a microscope table designed to collect some slices of US brightness mode (B-m ode) images, a transmitter containing control logic and a receiver circuit and a personal computer (PC) with an analog to digital (AD) converter. Firs t, US B-mode images with high spatial resolution were obtained by shifting a measurement plane at a constant step of 0.075 mm. Second, three-dimension al (3-D) image reconstruction was performed with Linear interpolation and a volume rendering technique. Finally, the point of view of the 3-D image wa s set in the human body and a virtual endoscopic image was presented. The e xperimental results present a blood vessel as if an ultrasound probe were i nserted in it and reveal the anatomical structure under skin.