Pd. Bevan et Md. Sherar, B-scan ultrasound imaging of thermal coagulation in bovine liver: Frequency shift attenuation mapping, ULTRASOUN M, 27(6), 2001, pp. 809-817
Thermal therapy is an experimental procedure to treat localised tumours in,
for example, the prostate, liver, kidney or breast. Following work that de
monstrated a marked increase in the ultrasound (US) attenuation of tissues
heated above 65 degreesC, US attenuation estimation is proposed as a method
to monitor the progression and extent of thermal therapy, In this study, B
-scan attenuation mapping techniques, based on the shift in centre frequenc
y of the US signal, are examined. A simple technique based on the change of
phase of the quadrature-demodulated signal is presented and analysed. Auto
regressive analysis is also examined. It is shown with simulated data that
these methods are effective at differentiating and localizing the attenuati
on change associated with tissue coagulation, but that, in the analysis of
phantom or ex vivo bovine liver data, electronic noise severely limits the
effectiveness of these techniques. (C) 2001 World Federation for Ultrasound
in Medicine & Biology.