CARDIOVASCULAR DIAGNOSIS WITH REAL TIME ULTRASOUND IMAGING.
Real-time imaaging system is described that relies on phased array principles to steer and focus the ultrasound beam in the near field of a linear array of ultrasound transducers. Underlying the development of this system were several design considerations specifically directed toward its application in clinical cardiology. These include image frame rates commensurate with cardiac dynamics, a field of view sufficiently large to allow image formation of most or all of the left ventricle and the utilization of a relatively small hand held transducer which would allow some freedom in imaging varioius planes of the cardiac anatomy through the restricted acoustic windows of the thorax. In addition, efforts wer directed toward improving the final image quality by maintaininag high azimuthal and range resolution throughout the field of view and by logarithmically compressing the received echo signals from each element of the array.
