A fast rotating scanning unit for real-time three-dimensional echo data acquisition.
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.
Djoa
K K
KK
Thoraxcentre Laboratory for Experimental Echocardiography, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
de Jong
N
N
van Egmond
F C
FC
Kasprzak
J D
JD
Vletter
W B
WB
Lancée
C T
CT
van der Steen
A F
AF
Bom
N
N
Roelandt
J R
JR
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