In-vivo Imaging of Sound-Speed: Optimized Imaging Methods and Sequences – Dr. Dieter Schweizer (ETH Zurich, Online)

Medical ultrasound (US) imaging is widely used in diagnostics. Well established methods such as B-mode imaging and Doppler application give insight into the patient’s body, but in many cases the interpretation of the results requires a lot of experience from the operator or interpreting physician. B-mode imaging is based on the assumption of a constant speed of sound (SoS) inside the tissue, but the composition of tissue may have varying speed of sound. Knowing and utilizing the real speed of sound in beamforming would help improve the B-mode image quality. Such local measurements can also quantify biomechanical tissue properties, providing information complementary to existing methods for diagnosis. With this motivation, this PhD thesis examines and devises acquisition sequences and processing pipelines suitable for common ultrasound machines, studying them experimentally and testing them for clinical feasibility.

About Dieter Schweizer