Dialysis and Ultrasound Technology

Module name : Dialysis and Ultrasound Technology

Code : EEBT 05201

Kimondo, Jotham, M.E.,BE

Mbeya University Science and Technology

June,2020
 Textbooks

R.S KHANDPUR, Biomedical Instrumentation, Technology

and applications Published by Mc Graw-hill, March 2005
ISBN 007147849

Shakti Chatterjee, Aubert Miller, Biomedical instrumentation

systems
Module plan and marks allocation

SN Activity Remark Marks

1. Lecture 9 Weeks
2. Assignment Group Assignment 7 marks
3. Presentation One Member of the group 8 Marks
3rd Week
4. Test 1 Fourth week (Date to be announced later) 25 Marks

Summary
CA 40 Marks
UE 60 Marks
Total 100 Marks
Assignment: (Documentation and Presentation)

1. Name parts of dialysis machines.

2. Explain basic principle of operation of dialysis equipment.
3. Explain the principle of the diffusion of solutes and ultrafiltration of fluid across a
semi-permeable membrane.
4. Analyze the construction of an artificial kidney(AK).
 INTRODUCTION
What is ultrasound?

 Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a

frequency greater than upper limit of human
hearing. i.e. 20 KHz
Why ultrasound?
 Safe and painless technique used in biomedicine.

 Produced ultrasound can penetrate a medium such as soft tissue and internal organ,

and measure the reflection signature or supply focused energy.

 Reflection signature reveals details about the inner structure of the medium.
 Application of this technique
 Obstetric sonography
 Gynecology
 Cardiology
 Neurology
 Orthopedics

 Particularly ultrasounds are most frequently performed in outpatient clinics or in the imaging departments of
hospitals.
 Its main attraction as Imaging modality lies in its non-invasive character and ability to distinguish interfaces
between soft tissues.
 Diagnostic ultrasound is applied for obtaining images of almost the entire range of internal organs in the
abdomen i.e. kidney, liver, spleen, pancreas, bladder, major blood vessels and of course, the fetus during
pregnancy.
 Transmission(Method of propagation) of ultrasonic wave motion can take place in different modes. The wave
motion may be longitudinal, transverse or shear.
 Uses
Compared to other prominent methods of medical imaging, ultrasound has
several (dis-)advantages.
Advantages include:
• It provides images in real-time (still and video),
• it is portable and can be brought to the bedside,
• it is substantially lower in cost,
• it does not use harmful ionizing radiation.
Drawbacks include:
• various limits on its field of view including
o patient cooperation and physique (obese),
o difficulty imaging structures behind bone and air,
• and its dependence on a skilled operator.
 PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND

Summary of the topics

 Propagation of ultrasound through different medium

 Acoustic velocity
 Reflection
 Refraction
 Acoustic impedance
PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND

 Ultrasound is a frequency greater than upper limit of human

hearing

 Frequency range of human hearing is between approximately

20Hz and 20 kHz.
 20 kHz serves as useful lower limit in describing ultrasound.
 PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND
Where does Ultrasound travels through?
Ultrasound travels through the medium and these medium can be:

Solids, Liquid or gas

Therefore the speed of an ultrasound through this media will depend on Density and
stiffness of the media.

 This speed is called the propagation velocity.

PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND
Material Speed(m/s) Speed (mm/μs)
Air 330m/s 33mm/μs
Lung 500m/s 0.50mm/μs
Fat 1450m/s 1.45mm/μs
Brain 1520m/s 1.52mm/μs
Muscle 1580m/s 1.58mm/μs
Liver 1550m/s 1.55mm/μs
Kidney 1560m/s 1.56mm/μs
Soft Tissue 1540m/s 1.54mm/μs
Bone 4000m/s 4.00mm/μs

Propagation velocity of ultrasound in tissues, bones and various organs

 PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND
Note :
 Molecules in the material vibrate back and forth in the same direction as the ultrasound travels.
 When a source of ultrasound generates ultrasound wave, one complete cycle consists of the compression and
rarefaction (relaxation) phase of the wave.

Compression and rarefaction

 Think of vibrating particles as individual pendulums which behave like

a waves.
 Oscillating particles combine to form high pressure regions called
compression and separate to form low pressure regions called
rarefaction.
 PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND
Question!
What does ultrasound depends when transmitted through the material. (What determine
acoustics velocity?)

I. Density of the material (𝜌)

 Density is the mass per unit volume
 Therefore more dense material has a high acoustic impedance.

II. Compressibility-K
 Fractional decrease in volume when pressure is applied to a substance.
The easier it is to reduce the volume of a medium, the greater its compressibility.
 PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND

Hence
 Greater compressibility impedes ultrasound propagation.
 Or we can say; - If the molecules in the medium are close, the
propagation of the ultrasound is fast.

Note: The reciprocal of the compressibility is the Bulk modulus (B)

e.g. Stiffness
 PHYSICS OF ULTRASOUND
Question!
1. What happens if these two factors(Density and compressibility) are
independent to each other?

2. If sound waves were passed through two materials with approximately the same elastic properties such
aluminum (10 psi) and gold (10.8psi).Where will sound travels fast and why?

 Compressibility plays a bigger role than density while are independent to each other.
Means the results of increasing/decreasing density has less effects on the acoustic velocity compare
to compressibility. Example of these feature is in solids
 Propagation
As an ultrasound wave coming to an interface with an angle can either reflect or refract.

Question!
Compare propagation of ultrasound in a solid and gas as a media?

What happens when ultrasound travels through an interface of two medium

 Reflect
 Refract
 Propagate
 Absorbed
Propagation
 END
THANK YOU
 Acoustic velocity
 In the soft tissue that we are imaging,
sound is assumed to travel at a constant
velocity (fixed rate).
 The pulse of sound is sent and listen to
the returned echo to the transducers.
 From an echo heard back to the
transducer a pixel can be produced.
 Material Speed(m/s) Speed (mm/μs)
Air 330m/s 33mm/μs
Lung 500m/s 0.50mm/μs
Fat 1450m/s 1.45mm/μs
Brain 1520m/s 1.52mm/μs
Muscle 1580m/s 1.58mm/μs
Liver 1550m/s 1.55mm/μs
Kidney 1560m/s 1.56mm/μs
Soft Tissue 1540m/s 1.54mm/μs
Bone 4000m/s 4.00mm/μs

Propagation velocity of ultrasound in tissues, bones and various organs

Question! Acoustic velocity
How do we know that?
 We assume a constant velocity for the sound, we take the time that takes
the sound to return to the transducer and we can easily convert to the
distance at which that echo must have produced.
 -We can make a pixel with a varying brightness depending how strong the
echo was that we heard back.
 Let’s use this velocity 1430m/s as an acoustic constant velocity moving
through tissue.
Note:
In a human body temperature remains constant but for learning purpose
take a note that a velocity of sound in a medium increases as temperature
increases.
 Acoustic velocity
VELOCITY OF SOUND IN A SINGLE MEDIUM

We know that
C=ℷf
 The acoustic velocity is the same throughout one medium(Constant)
 Therefore the wavelength is inversely proportional to the frequency.
ℷ = c/f or else you can put it as ℷ1f1 = ℷ2f2
Note that: Increasing frequency decreases the wavelength and improves an axial resolution.

Question

What is the difference in wavelength in a soft tissue of beams from a 5MHz transducer versus a 2.5MHz
transducer.
 Acoustic velocity

VELOCITY ACROSS TWO MEDIA

Frequency remains constant as the beam of sound travels between tissues of different

acoustic velocity.

Therefore wavelength is directly proportional to acoustic velocity.

ℷ = c/f or else we can put as c1/ℷ1 = c2/ℷ2

 INTENSITY
 Intensity is the rate at which energy is transmitted by the sound wave over a small
area.
 Greater amplitude means more intense of sound.
 Intensity does not affected by the frequency or wavelength of the sound.
 We measure intensity in relative intensity.
Relative intensity of two sounds is measured in a logarithmic scale ‘bels’ or ‘decibels’

RI(dB) = 10*log(I/I0)
Where;
I = Instantaneous Intensity of sound
I0 = Original intensity
 Acoustical impedance
The acoustical impedance (Za) of the material is a measure of its
opposition to the propagation of sound wave.
Its described by :

Acoustical impedance (Za) = 𝜌V

Za is the acoustical impedance in Rayls

𝜌 is the density of the medium in grams per cubic centimeter ( g/cm3)
V is the velocity of sound in the medium in centimeters per second
(cm/s)

1 Rayl = 1kg/m2s
 Acoustical impedance

What does acoustical impedance determine?

Generally the Acoustical impedance of the material is the one which

determine both reflection and Refraction of the material.

 If the acoustic impedance of two media are similar ,sound will

travel easily between them.
 If the acoustic impedance differ, some portion of the sound energy
will be deflected.
 Acoustical impedance

The percentage of energy that is reflected is given by the Coefficient of

reflection also called the intensity reflection coefficient

Where ;
R is the intensity reflection coefficient
Z1 Is the acoustical impedance of material 1
Z2 is the acoustical impedance of material 2

 It’s a difference in acoustical impedance that allows us to find out interface in

ultrasound.
 Acoustical impedance
Note:
Since % R is unit less
% R is independent of the direction of ultrasound travel path.
% R is also independent of the transducer frequency.
Therefore;
% Transmitted = 100 - % Reflected.

Question
Calculate the intensity reflection coefficient (R) at the boundary between air
(Z1= 50 g/cm2-s) and tissue (Z2 = 150,000g/cm2-s)
 Acoustical impedance

 Above example showed that 99% of all of the incident energy is reflected
from the air-tissue interface .
 The above example illustrates a problem that exists in medical
ultrasound.
The vastly different impedance of air and tissue results in a poor transfer of
power.

This Is why medical ultrasound transducers are coupled to the patient’s skin
through a special gel that provides an air-free path for ultrasound waves.
 INTERACTION OF THE ACOUSTIC WAVES WITH THE TISSUE

The difference ways the sound beam interferes with the tissue is the foundation of the
ultrasound.
When an ultrasound beam inter into a tissue the following may happen
1. Reflection
2. Refraction
3. Scatter
4. Diffraction
5. Interference
6. Absorption
 Reflection
 It occurs at the material of different density.
 At such interface sound waves are partially reflected and partially
transmitted.

 In reflection angle of incidence is equal to angle

of reflection
 If the incident wave strikes the surface at 900 it
will be reflected back on itself.
 TYPES OF REFLECTION
Specular reflection

 A single incident ray resulting in a single reflected ray is termed as specular

reflection.
 In Medical ultrasound systems this rarely occurs because it requires a flat
surface that is large compared with the wavelength of the signal.

Non specular reflectors

 This occurs when we have irregular surface.

 Therefore in medical ultrasound this cases is mostly happen.
 UPSHOT OF THE NON SPECULAR REFLECTION
Scatter
Scattering means diffuse reflection of small Multipath phenomenon
portions of a wave in various directions
 Ultrasound serves as both receiver and
transmitter
 Pulse is generated and system listens for an echo.
 The time between successive pulses(T) describes
the maximum distance that the system can
image(Maximum depth in tissue)

Direct incident and

reflected signal
Transducer A

Indirect reflected B
signal

When this occurs, a separate target is seen because the transducer can not
distinguish the direct and multipath reflections.
 REFRACTION
 Bending of the ultrasound beam when it enters the second medium
 Refraction occurs to the transmitted portion of the ultrasound beam when the incident beam
strikes an interface between two media at an angle other than 90 degree.
 UPSHOT OF REFRACTION

Misregistration
Transducer does not know that refraction has
occurred, thus beam reflection from an object
will be assumed to have come from a straight
line

Interface

Normal 𝞱r
𝞱i
 UPSHOT OF REFRACTION

How do we overcome the refraction

 The effect of the refraction is negligible when the
ultrasound beam is perpendicular to the
interface.

 This is important because the idea is to collect

the reflections, but not the refraction from the
interfaces in ultrasound diagnostics.

Example of a miss registration

Diffraction

Is the phenomenon by which the beam spreads out as it moves father from a
point source.
 Diffraction affects the lateral resolution of the image.
 INTERFERANCE
Ultrasound can interferer to each other and when we think of interference, we think of
destructive interference but in ultrasound we have a constructive interference.
Constructive interference
Destructive interference
 Algebraic summation of two waves which are in  Algebraic summation of the two waves which
phase are out of phase.
 The wave reinforce each other results an  The waves cancel each other results in
intensified sound diminished sound.
ABSORPTION AND ATTENUATION IN ULTRASOUND ENERGY

Absorption
 It’s the process by which sound energy is dissipated in a medium, usually heat.
 The value of attenuation by absorption depends on both the acoustical
impedance and the frequency

Therefore;
Attenuation is the overall effects of beam spreading, absorption and scatter
 TIME GAIN COMPENSATION (TGC)

 Ultrasound signal attenuates as it penetrates the tissue.

 Reflections from an object deeper in the tissue is weaker than it would be from the
object closer to the surface.
 Ultrasound overcome this with a receiver gain called Time gain compensation or depth
gain compensation.
 Time gain compensation (TGC) is a method where by the machine amplifies returned
signals as a function of their depth (or echo time)
TIME GAIN COMPENSATION (TGC)

Transducer

Echo1 Echo 2
SCIENTIFIC DATA FOR ATTENUATION COEFFICIENTS OF DIFFERENT TISSUE

Tissue Attenuation coefficient dB/cm at 1MHz

Water 0.002

Blood 0.18

Fat 0.63

Liver 0.9

Kidney 1.0

Muscle 1.2-3.3

Bone 5
 GENERATION AND DETECTION OF ULTRASOUND
TRANSDUCER

o An ultrasound transducer functions as both: a generator and a detector of ultrasonic waves.

o It converts mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa.

PIEZO ELECTRIC RESONATOR sometimes called A CRYSTAL RESONATOR serves as Transducer used in
ultrasound.
Mechanism of the generation of ultrasound is called PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECTS

o Effect is exhibited by certain crystalline materials which have the property to develop electrical
potentials on definite crystal surfaces when subjected to mechanical strain i.e. quartz, tourmaline
and Rochelle salt, PZT (barium nitrate and lead zirconate titanate).
TRANSDUCER

Mechanical stress generate electric charge Electrical voltage causes a change in length
proportion to that stress or vibration of piezoelectric material to
generate a sound wave
 PULSE WAVE OUTPUT
 A single crystal transducer can not transmit and receive simultaneously.
 The transducer sends a pulse of sound waves and then pauses to listen.

How do we accomplish this?

 Is by using a pulse repetition frequency
 The pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is the rate of pulse per second .

Pulse repetition frequency (PRF)

The PRF is limited by the maximum depth (R) to be sampled and by the acoustic velocity
of the medium (c)

 The machine usually sets the PRF according to the depth selected by the operator.
 This means increasing the depth decreases the PRF.
 PULSE WAVE OUTPUT

Question
What is the maximum PRF if the depth of interest is 10cm.Assumming velocity of
medium is 1540m/s

Solution

From the above Example

So I can send out a line of ultrasound information seven thousand seven hundred times
a second.
 Now if it takes me about hundred lines of ultrasound to make one image means I can
make about 77 images per second.
 Comparison of pulse Timing Parameters

Pulse on……..Pulse off………………………………………………………Pulse on……………....

Pulse duration or spatial pulse length

Note:
Wave period
Pulse period
During the ultrasound exam, the transducer transmits sound into the patient as
pulse. The wave period of the pulse decreases with the increase in sound
frequency, allowing for shorter Pulse duration (PD) or Spatial pulse length.

 The sum of the ‘on’ and ‘off’ time or the time between pulses is the pulse period
 SPATIAL PULSE LENGTH

This is the one which determine the resolution of the sound.

 The longitudinal length of the pulse equal to the wavelength of the pulse
times the number of cycles emitted

SPL = ℷ n

Question

If a transducer of 6MHz produces a pulse of 4 cycles, what is the spatial pulse

length.
 RESOLUTION

The resolution of an ultrasound system can be defined as the system’s ability to distinguish between
closely related structures
In general, the resolution is divided into
1. Axial resolution
 The axial resolution is the minimal axial distance, parallel to the beam axis, at which two
reflecting structures are recognized as separate structures.
 The axial resolution is determined by the wavelength of the transmitted pulse.
 This means that the smaller the wavelength, the higher the frequency and better the axial
resolution.

Note
• SPL is inversely related to the frequency ( directly related to ℷ )
• Thus, higher frequencies mean shorter SPL and improved axial resolution.
2. Lateral resolution

 The lateral resolution is the lateral distance, in a plane perpendicular to the beam axis, at which
two reflecting structures can be seen as two separate structures.
 The lateral resolution is determined by the shape/divergence of the ultrasound beam, produced
by the probe.

 A narrower beam width correlates with improved lateral resolution.

 END
THANK YOU
 Pulse-echo techniques (Imaging mode)
Pulse echo techniques are used widely to identify structure within the body.

Recall

The greater the difference in acoustic impedance of the two the

large the echo.

In many pulse-echo systems the echo amplifier gain (Time

compensation gain) is increased logarithmically with time after
delivery of the burst of ultrasound.
 Pulse-echo techniques (Imaging mode)
Ultrasound offers a large variety of different imaging modes.
The most common ones include

 A-mode
 B-mode
 M-mode

A- and M-mode generate one-dimensional (1-D) images (signals),

whereas B-mode can be used to acquire 2-D or even 3-D images.
 A-Mode (Amplitude Mode)
A scan method plots amplitude of echo against distance, which is proportional
to time.

Since the velocity of sound in the medium is known.

 The echo signals are applied to the Y-deflecting plates of the CRT so that they
are displayed vertically as the beam is swept across the CRT.

 Amount of vertical displacement is proportional to the strength of the echo

and its position from left to right across the CRT face corresponds to the
depth of its point of origin from the transducer.
 A-Mode (Amplitude Mode)
This Mode is not much used in imaging but the idea of echoes coming back to the receiver
one after another from several reflectors at different times as spikes with smaller amplitudes
really provide insight to understand other modes.

Note
Reid and wild in 1952 release a post mortem that the echo produced by tumors were
larger than those returned by normal tissue.
Disadvantage
Only very localized information (one single line through the body) is acquired.
 B-Mode (Brightness Mode)
Represents echoes as dots rather than vertical deflections and the brightness
represents the strength of the reflected echo.

The brightness increase with the echo amplitude.

 A scan of the B-mode is constructed by passing the ultrasound transducer over the body and
then displaying the returning echoes on a monitor as more point are acquired.
 In A-scope display, it is very difficult to interpret when many echoes are present simultaneously
and often potentially useful information is wasted.
 B-mode can be considered as a means of simultaneously presenting the echo information as
well as information about the position of the probe and the direction of propagation of the
sound.
 B-Mode (Brightness Mode)
 B-scan results from brightness modulation with amplitude of the echoes
obtained for various probe positions and orientations to produce a cross-
sectional image.
 The distance between the dots again represents time or tissue depth and the
intensity of the dots represents the strength of the echoes.
 For obtaining a 2-dimensional cross-section image (B-scan), it is necessary
to know the transducer position and its orientation.
 B-scanning of static objects gives two-dimensional images which allow
assessment of size, shape and position of the examined structures.
Pulse-echo techniques (Imaging mode)
Two ways to generate B-scan mode are
 Rotating transducer
 Phased array transducer
 Doppler ultrasound
Doppler Effect is a change of frequency that occurs when the receiver and
transmitter move relative to each other.

 Medical ultrasound devices can use the Doppler Effect to detect motion.
 Doppler Effect results in a change in frequency of the US-source.
 The frequency increases when the source and observer approach each other, in
contrast it decreases when they move apart from each other.

Application
The effect is used in monitoring blood flow and structure in the body
moves relative to the ultrasound transducer.
 ANALYSIS OF THE DOPPLER
EFFECT
o The wave interacts with the blood flow having a velocity of V and its
components Vcos𝞱 (which is in the same direction as the wave).
o This interaction is now affecting the frequency of the ultrasound.

Changed frequency fp based on the difference of two velocities in the same

direction is given as;