A new algorithm for detecting fetal heart rate using ultrasound Doppler signals

Although the fetal heart rate monitoring using ultrasound is widely used it is still not optimized for automatic measurements due to the complexity of the Doppler signal. This paper presents a new fetal heart rate (FHR) detecting algorithm, using sampling auto-correlation approach. The results obtained using the custom-built ultrasonic Doppler fetal heart rate monitoring system are presented and confirm the validity of the method.     

Internal tissue displacement measurement based on ultrasonic wave Doppler signal digital detection and its application to fetal movement monitoring

We have developed a fetal movement monitoring system based on small displacement measurement of internal tissues. When ultrasonic pulses are transmitted to the fetus, the reflected ultrasonic waves which have a Doppler frequency shift due to the fetal movements are detected by using an ultrasonic pulsed Doppler technique. In this paper, we propose a displacement measurement method for internal tissues which is based on the Doppler signal digital detection technique. In the method, the received ultrasonic RF signals are sampled with a sampling frequency of four times higher than the centre frequency of the ultrasonic waves; the Doppler frequency shift signals are derived using digital signal processing. From the detected signals, the internal displacements are estimated using the arc-tangent method. The basic algorithm of the detection method has already been used in the area of blood flow sensing, however, we apply the algorithm to the displacement measurement of internal tissues. The comparison between the proposed method and the conventional method is presented. The fetal movement quantitative monitoring system based on the method which has been constructed is shown.     

超声波流速测量的多普勒频移提取方法研究

为了提高超声波多普勒法测量复杂流体流量的精度,针对流体的超声回波频率的复杂性,本文研究多普勒流速测量中的频偏提取方法。以傅里叶分析为理论基础,设计了硬件电路并获得代表回波平均频率的信号,然后以该信号作为输入,以数字鉴频法获得回波多普勒频移。基于该方法设计了一种超声多普勒流量测量系统,实验结果显示:油水混合流体流量的测量误差在3%以内,从而证实了此频偏提取方法的有效性。     

Contrast enhanced vascular three-dimensional ultrasound imaging

In other imaging modalities three-dimensional (3D) data displays are well established; not so in ultrasound. Due to the real-time requirements of ultrasound the time available to compute 3D displays is limited, particularly when flow data is acquired with Doppler techniques. Consequently, it is only recently that improvements in computer processing power have resulted in useful vascular 3D ultrasound scans. Many manufacturers have now implemented free-hand 3D power Doppler capabilities on their scanners. However, to obtain flow signals from smaller vessels associated e.g., with tumor neovascularity, may very well require the introduction of a microbubble based ultrasound contrast agent into the blood stream. Given the up to 30 dB enhancement of Doppler signals produced by the contrast microbubbles quite spectacular vascular 3D images are feasible. Moreover, new contrast imaging techniques, such as harmonic imaging, have now permitted 3D vascular information to be acquired and displayed in grayscale with the associated improvement in resolution. In this paper we will review different aspects of contrast enhanced vascular 3D ultrasound imaging including implementation, contrast specific techniques and in vivo imaging.     

海豚等动物神经系统处理多普勒信号的一种可能性方案

海豚、蝙蝠等动物具有功能强大的生物声纳，生物神经系统处理多普勒效应的网络结构可能会有多种形式.对这类生物的神经系统信号处理机制及结构的研究，将能为信息处理提供新的视角.根据序空间神经编码理论，构建了一个生物神经回路处理多普勒信号.经计算机仿真可知，该生物神经网络运算速度快、分辨率高，并能处理任意的连续变频率多普勒信号.所研究的仅由1—2个神经元组成的网络结构是最简单的，由于网络只有一级神经元的延时，保证了处理的快速性，在神经元输出10个脉冲的情况下分辨率可达7^-10. 关键词： 多普勒效应 海豚 神经编码 神经脉冲序列     

Clifford Wavelet Entropy for Fetal ECG Extraction

Analysis of the fetal heart rate during pregnancy is essential for monitoring the proper development of the fetus. Current fetal heart monitoring techniques lack the accuracy in fetal heart rate monitoring and features acquisition, resulting in diagnostic medical issues. The challenge lies in the extraction of the fetal ECG from the mother ECG during pregnancy. This approach has the advantage of being a reliable and non-invasive technique. In the present paper, a wavelet/multiwavelet method is proposed to perfectly extract the fetal ECG parameters from the abdominal mother ECG. In a first step, due to the wavelet/mutiwavelet processing, a denoising procedure is applied to separate the noised parts from the denoised ones. The denoised signal is assumed to be a mixture of both the MECG and the FECG. One of the well-known measures of accuracy in information processing is the concept of entropy. In the present work, a wavelet/multiwavelet Shannon-type entropy is constructed and applied to evaluate the order/disorder of the extracted FECG signal. The experimental results apply to a recent class of Clifford wavelets constructed in Arfaoui, et al. J. Math. Imaging Vis. 2020, 62, 73–97, and Arfaoui, et al. Acta Appl. Math. 2020, 170, 1–35. Additionally, classical Haar–Faber–Schauder wavelets are applied for the purpose of comparison. Two main well-known databases have been applied, the DAISY database and the CinC Challenge 2013 database. The achieved accuracy over the test databases resulted in Se = 100%, PPV = 100% for FECG extraction and peak detection.     

Effect of deviation from plane wave conditions on the Doppler spectrum from an ultrasonic blood flow detector.

Deviation from plane wave conditions within the ultrasound beam of a Doppler blood flow detector leads to a non-linear relationship between the phase angle of the back-scattered signal and the scatterer position. This in turn leads to frequency modulation of the Doppler signal and an increase in the Doppler spectrum width. The relationship between the ultrasound beam and the observed signal spectrum has been investigated by employing a computer-based model of the ultrasound field which enabled the calculation of: 1, pressure (amplitude and phase angle) field distributions from plane disc and focused transducers with unapodized and apodized aperture field distributions; 2, the Doppler signal from a scatterer moving through the field; and 3, the spectrum of this signal. The increase in spectral width resulting from deviations from plane wave conditions was calculated by comparing this spectrum with that of the signal from which frequency modulation had been removed.     

Signal processing of double-beam and double-scattering laser Doppler velocimeter

The common method of laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) signal processing is fast Fourier transform (FFT). Because of the restraint of spectral interference, fence effect and spectrum leakage, the precision of FFT is not high. In order to improve the accuracy of double-beam and double-scattering laser Doppler velocimeter signal processing, an algorithm based on spectral refinement and interpolation is put forward. First, high-pass filter is adopted to remove the baseplate of LDV signal. Second, FFT is adopted to get the estimate of Doppler frequency and then Zoom-FFT is used to refine the local range of Doppler frequency. Third, four-term fifth derivative Nuttall windowed interpolation is used to correct the refined spectrum. Then the accurate estimate of Doppler frequency can be obtained. Simulations and experiments based on the LDV system built in laboratory show that Zoom-FFT can improve the resolution of spectrum and four-term fifth derivative Nuttall windowed interpolation can further increase the precision of signal processing.     

Detecting Doppler ultrasound embolic signals using the wavelet-based feature extraction algorithm

The non-invasive detection of circulating emboli with the Doppler ultrasound technique is of active significance in clinical applications. In order to eliminate drawbacks of artifacts brought by the movement of probes or patients and detect emboli accurately, relevant feature parameters are extracted from two angles of the wavelet transform of Doppler signals. The singularity of the signal waveform is analyzed based on its wavelet scalogram; then transverse and longitudinal parameters are extracted to represent the scalogram characteristics. A novel method is proposed based on the adaptive wavelet packet basis, from which several parameters such as the energy, the scale, etc. are extracted to represent the optimized signal approximation features. With all feature parameters in two aspects, a classification system is established for Doppler Ultrasound embolic signals by solving the generalized Fisher discriminant plane. From experiments on 300 simulated and 298 clinical Doppler ultrasound signals of cerebral arteries, it is shown that the proposed system can achieve the emboli detection rates of 99.0% and 98.5% for the training set and the testing set respectively. Therefore this method makes an improve- ment of emboli detection compared to traditional in the automatic detection of clinical emboli. methods and has the possibility to be applied     

Human motion analyses using footstep ultrasound and Doppler ultrasound

Human footsteps generate periodic broadband frequency envelopes of sound due to dynamic friction forces. Also, human body motion when walking is a cyclic temporal process. The individual body parts have different acoustic cross sections and velocities that form unique human Doppler signatures. The paper introduces an approach to analyze this motion using passive and active ultrasound. The passive method employs a narrowband microphone that is sensitive to the sound from footsteps. The active method utilizes continuous-wave ultrasound to measure the Doppler shifted signal from the body appendages. These two methods show time synchronization between Doppler and ultrasonic human footstep signatures.     

级联三能级系统中高阶非线性效应的研究

本文采用二阶相干函数理论研究了级联三能级系统中三阶及五阶极化拍频(TPBCTS及FPBCTS)的非线性效应.通过对泵浦光为宽带及窄带情形的分析,我们发现三阶及五阶极化拍频信号的强度在时域内的变化取决于激光的统计特性和跃迁的横向驰豫率,从而在测量原子能级分裂时可以得到消除多普勒极限增宽的精度.另外,我们对信号的空间调制也进行了分析.     

超声动态向量血流成像的产品化实现

传统超声彩色多普勒成像测量的是血流沿超声传播方向上的速度分量,故无法得到垂直于超声传播方向的血流。向量血流成像是一种更加先进的超声血流成像技术。它不受角度限制,可以直接计算出血流速度的大小和方向。本文总结了现有多种超声向量血流成像技术的特点和发展情况,并从产品化实现的角度分析了各项技术的优缺点。从超声系统发射接收、血流成像、向量速度方向合成、显示等几个方面详述了迈瑞超声向量血流成像技术产品化实现过程中遇到的主要问题及解决方案。实验采用了中科院声学所研制的超声多普勒仿血流体模,通过向量血流成像和脉冲多普勒成像分别测量体模的仿血流速度。将向量血流成像直接计算出来的速度值与脉冲多普勒经过角度校正得到的速度进行对比。在不同条件下,经过多次测量,二者的平均相对误差均在10%以内。     

Design of a continuous wave blood flow bi-directional Doppler system

This paper describes the design of a continuous wave blood flow bi-directional Doppler system based on an open, high-resolution architecture that is portable and low cost. The system incorporates the advantages of expensive systems with dedicated hardware. The system is composed of a flow detector probe, a signal conditioning stage, a direction detection module, a signal processing stage and a graphic user interface. The direction detection of the signal is achieved using a fast digital phasing filter. The Doppler signal is processed using a short-time Fourier transform-based algorithm. This is commonly used as a reference. Nevertheless, the system allows us to incorporate alternative high-resolution spectral estimation methods that might offer more precise information to the specialist.     

Double Doppler ranging system using FM ultrasound

A new system which detects change in distance between a sound source and a receiver, using FM ultrasound has been developed, the principle of which is based on the Doppler phase shift. The use of FM ultrasound allows simultaneous detection both by carrier signal and by demodulated signal, and by using these methods together, stable measurements with good resolution are possible. Experiments in air and an anechoic water tank confirmed the accuracy of plus or minus half a wavelength for change of distance.     

激光多普勒测速实验系统的信号处理

本文详细报导了运用集成锁相环路在激光多普勒测速实验教学系统中实现多普勒信号频率跟踪处理的设计原理和具体实施方案。该处理方法将集成度较高的 L M5 6 5锁相环应用于系统 ,使系统具有电路简单、可靠、可实时测量和结果直观、易操作等特点     

基于高速移动通信的虚拟天线阵列理论研究

在高速移动通信中, 多普勒频移对通信性能产生严重的影响, 通常需要对接收信号的多普勒频移进行估计并进行补偿. 本文研究在对单个天线接收的高速移动通信信号进行频移估计和补偿的基础上产生多路无频偏的信号, 并虚拟为天线阵列的输出以提高系统的接收增益. 首先讨论了“均匀时间采样”和“均匀相位采样”的关系, 并根据两者之间的关系提出了补偿多普勒频移和虚拟天线阵列的算法, 即对采样信号进行插值、均匀相位抽取以后, 再进行均匀时间采样. 然后分析了算法对高速移动通信系统性能的改善作用, 并提出了算法的硬件实现结构. 通过数值仿真验证了算法的干扰抑制能力和误码性能, 结果表明本文提出的虚拟天线阵列算法能够改善飞机、高铁上的高速移动通信系统的性能.     

超声激发声信号幅值实时监测HIFU焦域组织损伤*

聚焦超声消融肿瘤过程中的损伤实时监测是临床治疗面临的一个关键难题,双频聚焦超声不仅能提高治疗效率,且能在共焦区域激发出声信号,该声信号的幅值、频率等信息与焦域组织的机械和声学特性紧密相关。本文构建了一种双频聚焦超声治疗及组织损伤实时监测系统。该系统在聚焦超声辐照离体组织过程中,通过外部水听器接收双频激发的组织声发射信号,并通过上位机进行高速数据采集、数字滤波、时频处理等,分析声发射信号幅值与离体组织损伤之间的变化规律。实验研究结果表明：随着焦域组织损伤的形成,其弹性等声学特征发生改变,导致声发射信号幅值逐渐降低,表明声发射信号幅值的变化可较好地反映靶组织声学特征和结构的变化,从而实现聚焦超声治疗中靶组织损伤的实时监测。本文提出的监测方案相比传统超声影像监控更灵敏,有望为聚焦超声临床治疗中的组织损伤监控提供一种新的实时监测方案和手段。     

The effect of blood acceleration on the ultrasound power Doppler spectrum

The purpose of the present work was to study the influence of blood acceleration and time window length on the power Doppler spectrum for Gaussian ultrasound beams. The work has been carried out on the basis of continuum model of the ultrasound scattering from inhomogeneities in fluid flow. Correlation function of fluctuations has been considered for uniformly accelerated scatterers, and the resulting power Doppler spectra have been calculated. It is shown that within the initial phase of systole uniformly accelerated slow blood flow in pulmonary artery and aorta tends to make the correlation function about 4.89 and 7.83 times wider, respectively, than the sensitivity function of typical probing system. Given peak flow velocities, the sensitivity function becomes, vice versa, about 4.34 and 3.84 times wider, respectively, then the correlation function. In these limiting cases, the resulting spectra can be considered as Gaussian. The optimal time window duration decreases with increasing acceleration of blood flow and equals to 11.62 and 7.54 ms for pulmonary artery and aorta, respectively. The width of the resulting power Doppler spectrum is shown to be defined mostly by the wave vector of the incident field, the duration of signal and the acceleration of scatterers in the case of low flow velocities. In the opposite case geometrical properties of probing field and the average velocity itself are more essential. In the sense of signal–noise ratio, the optimal duration of time window can be found. Abovementioned results may contribute to the improved techniques of Doppler ultrasound diagnostics of cardiovascular system.     

改进的经验模态分解法分离超声多普勒血流与管壁信号

超声多普勒血流信号常包含管壁信号的干扰,准确分离二者对提高血流检测的精度具有重要作用。本文提出两种改进的经验模态分解(EMD)方法,先将含管壁信号的超声多普勒信号分解成多层本征模态函数(IMF),然后根据血流信号与管壁信号的不同特性,对既含管壁信号又含血流信号的IMF分量进行分离处理,最后将各层IMF分量中的管壁成分叠加得到管壁信号的估计,而血流信号可通过原信号减去估计的管壁信号而得到。将本方法用于计算机仿真信号和人体实测的超声多普勒信号,并与高通滤波器法、空间选择性降噪法和原EMD法进行比较,结果表明:本文提出的两种方法能在较大的管壁搏动速度范围内准确地分离血流信号和管壁信号,其平均相对误差比高通滤波器的结果降低了约52%和57%。可见,本文提出的两种方法有望用于血流信号与管壁信号的准确分离。