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Medical
Applications
Together with its clinical partners
and advisory boards, Imperium is under development
on a full line of medical imaging products for clinical
use with DAV™. Our suite of Acoustocam™ imaging cameras*
is focused on both imaging applications that current
B-scan systems perform as well as expanded clinical
uses that current ultrasound cannot satisfy. Images
no longer exhibit unwanted speckle typically seen
by conventional ultrasound images. Traditionally,
B-scan ultrasound systems produce images which are
perpendicular to the skin surface. Imperium's C-scan
systems generate images which are parallel to the
surface of the skin and records 2D plane images at
different depths. Dr. Matthew Freedman of Georgetown
University Medical Center writes:
“The images shown provide
additional information beyond that seen by conventional
ultrasound, combining the images visible on conventional
ultrasound and X-ray mammography.”
Compared to conventional
B-mode ultrasound, C-mode has the following advantages:
- Much easier for non-specialists
to interpret
- Inherently lower cost
- C-scan is free from speckle,
an unwanted artifact seen on B-scan
- C-scan is free from geometric
distortion seen on B-scan
- C-scan has far greater spatial
resolution
- It takes multiple round trips
to generate one B-scan image. Sending more and more
pulses improves image quality, but it sacrifices
refresh rate. C-scan requires only one round trip
to generate a full field image. There is no technical
need to image at less than 30 fps.
- C-scan images appear more
naturally illuminated than B-scan images
- C-scan therefore does not
include the shadows that normally streak across
B-scans
- Structures in the C-scan appear
to reflect ultrasound the way they would reflect
light
| A figure showing the difference
between B-scan and C-scan is shown below: |
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