Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine

K. Kirk Shung9780824740962, 0-8247-4096-3

Ultrasound imaging is one of the most important and widely used diagnostic tools in modern medicine, second only to the conventional x-ray. Although considered a mature field, research continues for improving the capabilities and finding new uses for ultrasound technology while driving down the cost of newer, more complicated procedures such as intravascular ultrasound. Diagnostic Ultrasound: Imaging and Blood Flow Measurements presents new developments, fundamental physics, instrumentation, system architecture, biological effects of ultrasound, and clinical applications that reflect this initiative. Keeping mathematical derivations to a minimum, this book begins with an overview of the field, the strengths and weaknesses of the technology, and its role relative to other imaging modalities. The book proceeds to describe the fundamental physics involved, a detailed examination of the transducer, conventional imaging approaches, and Doppler measurements. The following chapters explore new developments such as flow, displacement, contrast, harmonic, intracavity, and 4-D imaging. The author concludes by reviewing current status and standards on bioeffects along with a unique chapter on measuring ultrasonic properties of tissues that can be found nowhere else. Emphasizing the engineering and signal processing aspects of ultrasound technology rather than taking a clinical perspective, Diagnostic Ultrasound: Imaging and Blood Flow Measurements encourages and enables further advances in this established yet dynamic field.