Medical Physics Department, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, United Kingdom.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2012 May;38(5):824-33. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2012.01.008. Epub 2012 Mar 6.
Extension of transcranial Doppler embolus detection to estimation of bubble size has historically been hindered by difficulties in applying scattering theory to the interpretation of clinical data. This article presents a simplified approach to the sizing of air emboli based on analysis of Doppler embolic signal intensity, by using an approximation to the full scattering theory that can be solved to estimate embolus size. Tests using simulated emboli show that our algorithm is theoretically capable of sizing 90% of "emboli" to within 10% of their true radius. In vitro tests show that 69% of emboli can be sized to within 20% of their true value under ideal conditions, which reduces to 30% of emboli if the beam and vessel are severely misaligned. Our results demonstrate that estimation of bubble size during clinical monitoring could be used to distinguish benign microbubbles from potentially harmful macrobubbles during intraoperative clinical monitoring.
经颅多普勒栓子检测技术向微泡大小估计的扩展，在将散射理论应用于临床数据解释方面一直存在困难。本文提出了一种基于对多普勒栓子信号强度分析的简化方法，使用可以解决以估计栓子大小的全散射理论的近似值。使用模拟栓子进行的测试表明，我们的算法在理论上能够将 90%的“栓子”准确到其真实半径的 10%以内。在体外测试中，如果光束和血管严重不对准，在理想条件下可以将 69%的栓子准确到其真实值的 20%以内，而如果光束和血管严重不对准，则只能将 30%的栓子准确到其真实值的 20%以内。我们的研究结果表明，在临床监测期间估计气泡大小可用于在术中临床监测期间区分良性微泡和潜在有害的大气泡。
