title: A fast rotating scanning unit for real-time three-dimensional echo data acquisition.
abstract: Most three-dimensional (3-D) echocardiography (3-DE) systems today are based on off-line methods where a large number of cross-sectional 2-D scans have to be acquired sequentially before a 3-D image can be reconstructed. Because acquisition is done step-by-step based on ECG triggering plus respiratory gating, this introduces motion artefacts and takes significant acquisition time. Another 3-D approach is based on 2-D transducers and parallel beam-forming. Such a system is very complex. In this manuscript, a fast continuously-rotating scanning unit, based on a 64-element phased-array transducer, is described. Typical rotation speed of the 3-D unit is 8 rotations per s. Therefore, 16 3-D volume datasets can be acquired per s in real-time. The first clinical examples as acquired with this probe are presented.
authors.affiliation: Thoraxcentre Laboratory for Experimental Echocardiography, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Djoa
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: van Egmond
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kasprzak
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Vletter
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Lancée
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: van der Steen
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bom
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Roelandt
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016276:Ventricular Function