Computer Analysis of the Ultrasonic Echocardiogram

Abstract

Ultrasonic echocardiography (UCG) has been widely used as a noninvasive, safe and reliable diagnostic tool in clinical medicine. Measurement techniques using ultrasound have been proposed during the past decade. In using a UCG, a short burst of ultrasound is emitted through the body surface from a transducer. Echoes reflected at the borders between two media of different acoustic impedance are caught using the same transducer as a receiver. An Mmode display of the ultrasonic echocardiogram gives much useful information on the internal structure and dynamic characteristics of the heart. However, ultrasonic echocardiograms are usually stored as data in a strip chart or as photography and the analysis of the data to evaluate the cardiac function quantitatively is performed manually by medical doctors consuming much of their time and energy.