High Frequency Ultrasound Transducers for Imaging of Arterial Structures with Increased Blood-Tissue Contrast

Coronary artery disease is a leading cause of fatalities around the world. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging is commonly used for diagnosis, intervention guidance, and assessment of vessel walls after treatment. State of the art IVUS has an axial resolution of around 100 μm yet fails to visualize smaller arterial structures. At higher frequencies, resolution is increased, but the increased backscattering in blood distorts the arterial wall structures and lumen. To overcome this limitation, this study utilizes the ratio between high frequency filtered signals and low frequency filtered signals to increase the contrast between blood and vessel walls with a high frequency single-element transducer. A 50 MHz ultrasound transducer was developed and used to generate contrast images in a blood vessel phantom.