Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume 35, Issue 2 , Pages 230-236, February 2009

Multigate Doppler Measurements of Ultrasonic Attenuation and Blood Hematocrit in Human Arteries

  • Wojciech Secomski

      Affiliations

    • Department of Ultrasound, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to: Wojciech Secomski, Department of Ultrasound, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, IPPT PAN, Swietokrzyska 21, 00-049 Warsaw, Poland
    • ,
  • Andrzej Nowicki

      Affiliations

    • Department of Ultrasound, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
    • ,
  • Piero Tortoli

      Affiliations

    • Electronics and Telecommunication Department, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
    • ,
  • Robert Olszewski

      Affiliations

    • Department of Cardiology, Military Medical Institute, Warsaw, Poland

Received 30 May 2008; received in revised form 4 August 2008; accepted 13 August 2008. published online 27 October 2008.

Abstract 

A clinically applicable method for noninvasive measurement of hematocrit based on 20 MHz multigate Doppler ultrasound was developed. The ultrasound attenuation coefficient in blood is obtained by measuring the power of the signal coming from gates at different depths. A robust averaging method is introduced, which provides stable and repeatable results by using the echo signals from all depths inside the vessel. In vitro measurements have been done on porcine blood with hematocrit ranging from 3.0% to 65.0%. Steady and pulsatile flow conditions have been simulated using a peristaltic pump. The attenuation coefficient indicated the linear relation to hematocrit. The resulting correlation coefficient was R = 0.999 for the continuous blood flow and R = 0.992 for pulsatile flow. In vivo measurements have been performed in the brachial artery in 43 patients with hematocrit in the range of 32.0% to 49.3%. The mean absolute error has been 3.24% with a standard deviation of 3.72%. (E-mail: wsecom@ippt.gov.pl)

Key Words: Blood, Hematocrit, Doppler, Ultrasonic attenuation

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PII: S0301-5629(08)00381-5

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2008.08.009

Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume 35, Issue 2 , Pages 230-236, February 2009

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