Ultrasound pulse propagation in dispersive media
- 1 May 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Physics in Medicine & Biology
- Vol. 25 (3), 481-488
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-9155/25/3/007
Abstract
Human tissues show dispersive ultrasound absorption, and it is important to understand how ultrasound pulses in the diagnostic frequency range, 1-10 MHz, propagate in such media. An uncomplicated wave-equation model for human soft tissues is postulated, and its dispersion law for absorption is demonstrated to be compatible with existing experimental findings. Propagative solutions for the simple one-dimensional, homogeneous case (no scattering) are derived. It is shown that the transmitted pulse consists of an undistorted, damped replica of the incident pulse, plus a depth-dependent, time-extended 'rumble', both of which travel at a fixed, finite velocity through the medium. The constancy of this (signal) velocity reconciles the predicted velocity dispersion with the observed weakness of such an effect in many tissues, and some consequences for the measurement of both velocity and absorption are indicated.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Comprehensive compilation of empirical ultrasonic properties of mammalian tissuesThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1978
- Frequency dependence of ultrasonic absorption in mammalian testisThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1978
- Ultrasonic propagation properties of mammalian testesThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1976
- Acoustic Properties of Hemoglobin SolutionsThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1959