3D Transesophageal echocardiography using a fast-rotating transducer

3D Transesophageal echocardiography using a fast-rotating transducer

Nathanail, K.

French, P.J. (mentor)
Meyer, C.M. (mentor)
Gaydadjiev, G.N. (mentor)
Bosch, J.G. (mentor)
De Jong, N. (mentor)

Thoraxcenter Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus Medical Center

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

2008-05-16

Echocardiography is a diagnostic modality which is widely used in cardiology, using ultrasound to image the living heart and assess its physiological function. Three-dimensional echocardiography surpasses the visual limitations of conventional echocar-diography, offering a three-dimensional perspective of the heart. Traditional techniques for acquiring three-dimensional echocardiographic images have been successfully applied to the transesophageal approach to echocardiography. The important clinical contribution of three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3D TEE), as well as the unique diagnostic opportunities it offers, have been acknowledged. However, the applied tech-niques are based on a slow procedure, cumbersome for the patient and present certain pit-falls. Recent technological advancements have allowed more flexible approaches to 3D TEE. Such approaches are, nonetheless, based on an expensive solution with inherent limitations, available only with specialized, high-end imaging systems. The present thesis is a description of the authors work on the realization of three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography using a TEE probe with a fast-rotating transducer array. It describes the entire endeavor of visualizing the heart and its inherent structures in three dimensions by implementing a novel approach in transesophageal echocardiographic imaging. The approach itself and subsequent research to implement and optimize it are portrayed. The authors work was carried out in its entirety at the Biomedical Engineering department of the Thoraxcenter, Erasmus Medical Center, Rot-terdam, the Netherlands, within the Experimental Echocardiography group (ExpEcho) in close cooperation with Oldelft Ultrasound B.V (Oldelft), Delft, the Netherlands. The organizational structure of the thesis attempts to introduce the reader to back-ground knowledge necessary for understanding the subject, present the technical aspects involved and discuss the results and conclusions of the work. The first chapter establishes the background for concepts and terminology related to the thesis subject. In the second chapter, the details on resources and devices used are illustrated, connecting them with the work involved. Further, the design concepts are justified according to specific re-quirements of the approach. Chapters 3 and 4 describe the associated experimental work. The outcome of that work and its implications about the success of the initial concept are portrayed. The images in these two chapters which correspond to avi-files located in the accompanying CD-ROM are marked with the tag Video available. Finally, chapter 5 sum-marizes the results of the work, presenting certain conclusions extracted from that work. Suggestions regarding the future direction of research on the topic are provided.

tee
fast-rotating
three-dimensional
interpolation
echocardiography

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1f285e6f-31c3-4173-9281-9dca204d28fe

TU Delft, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Sci, Biomechanical Engineering (BmechE)

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2008 K. Nathanail