Journal
PHYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY
Volume 60, Issue 9, Pages 3441-3457Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/60/9/3441
Keywords
ultrasound transducer; intravascular ultrasound imaging; acoustic angiography; contrast imaging; super-harmonic imaging; dual frequency transducer; microbubble
Funding
- NIH [R01EB015508, R01CA170665, P41EB02182]
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Imaging of coronary vasa vasorum may lead to assessment of the vulnerable plaque development in diagnosis of atherosclerosis diseases. Dual frequency transducers capable of detection of microbubble superharmonics have shown promise as a new contrast-enhanced intravascular ultrasound (CE-IVUS) platform with the capability of vasa vasorum imaging. Contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) in CE-IVUS imaging can be closely associated with low frequency transmitter performance. In this paper, transducer designs encompassing different transducer layouts, transmitting frequencies, and transducer materials are compared for optimization of imaging performance. In the layout selection, the stacked configuration showed superior super-harmonic imaging compared with the interleaved configuration. In the transmitter frequency selection, a decrease in frequency from 6.5 MHz to 5 MHz resulted in an increase of CTR from 15 dB to 22 dB when receiving frequency was kept constant at 30 MHz. In the material selection, the dual frequency transducer with the lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) 1-3 composite transmitter yielded higher axial resolution compared to single crystal transmitters (70 mu m compared to 150 mu m pulse length). These comparisons provide guidelines for the design of intravascular acoustic angiography transducers.
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