Measurement of Acoustic Impedance of Skin

Abstract

It is important to know the characteristics of the acoustic impedance of a living tissue in order to diagnose with ultrasonic equipment or to design the equipment. Especially, in the immersion method of ultrasonic diagnosis, if strong reflections are produced from mis-matched interface between the skin and the water-bag and that between transducer and water, reverberations occur. The echo from the deep portion of body is disturbed by the reverberation and the strong echo from the mis-matched interface between the skin and the water-bag masks the weak echo from just under the skin. In these cases, it is difficult to make the diagnosis from the echo.