Ultrasonic thermometry inside tissues based on high-resolution detection of spectral shifts in overtones of scattering signals

Some research results of cooperation works in biomedical engineering, established among current national projects of Mexico and Spain, are resumed. They are related to coordinated activities of three R & D groups, with the aim to achieve high-resolution ultrasonic thermometry into tissue phantoms with internal reflectors of a non-invasive way.

Advanced spectral techniques are being used to extract thermal information in echo-signals acquired from biological phantoms with internal structures having a quasi-regular scattering distribution as, for instance, it happens in the liver tissues where a rather regular separation between scatterers has been reported. These techniques can indicate pathologies related to thermal increases due to the presence of disease. Small changes with temperature can be detected in the location of overtones of the fundamental resonance related to the separation of internal reflectors. But, this requires discarding the influence of the echoes noise on the thermal estimation results. A first evaluation of these spectral analysis techniques is performed, using echo-signals acquired from a phantom in the temperature range with medical interest, where the noise influence is shown for different levels of SNR in the echoes, using signals derived of a mathematical model for hepatic tissue echoes, where the average power, signal to noise ratio and inter-arrival time standard deviation, were taken into account. It seems that our high-resolution spectral option could be applied to detect some pathologies in tissues having regular scattering, but new advances must be performed with real tissues, in order to confirm the potential resolution of this approach.