The incidence of disease of the cardiovascular system is very high and increasing worldwide, especially in the developing world. The radial and ulnar arteries are implicated in some important ailments where blood flow related parameters such as flow rate (FR), wall shear rate (WSR), arterial wall motion (AWM) and pressure, all of which can be measured using ultrasound techniques, are useful in diagnosis and patient management. However these measurements are prone to error due to the manner of image formation and the complex flow conditions within the vessels. In this thesis, the errors in ultrasound-measured parameters in the radial and ulnar arteries are investigated using experimental phantoms, computer simulation and on volunteers. Using the Womersley theory, FR and WSR were estimated using a clinical ultrasound scanner with the pulsed wave (PW) mode and B mode. Experimental flow phantoms were designed to evaluate those measurements under different circumstances. A simulation technique which combined image-based computational fluid dynamics and ultrasound simulation was also used to evaluate ultrasound estimation of these parameters. A case study was then conducted on healthy volunteers to evaluate the method of measuring FR and WSR in-vivo. For the AWM in the radial artery, an auto-correlation method was used based on the radio-frequency (RF) data and validations were done by a flow phantom, simulation, and in-vivo trial. The blood pressure waveform in a volunteer’s radial artery was derived from the ultrasound measured AWM and compared with the waveform from a tonometry. FR and WSR were both found to be overestimated by up to 50%, mainly due to the beam-vessel angle in the PW Doppler ultrasound. Measurement of the vessel diameter and assumption of the blood flow direction can also influence the estimations. Other factors, such as flow amplitude, vessel size, imaging depth and flow waveforms, do not seem to affect the estimation of these two parameters. Results taken from the flow phantoms agree with those from simulation and the estimations from the in-vivo case study also agree with the published data. The auto-correlation method for the AWM was validated from the phantom and simulation. It is able to detect motion amplitude of about tens of micrometres. The trial on volunteers proved the feasibility of this motion detection method. Blood pressure waveforms at the radial artery of a volunteer, derived from this ultrasound-measured wall motion and from the tonometry, were very similar. The Womersley-based method is able to estimate the FR and WSR in the radial and ulnar arteries with high accuracy. Sources of the error and their magnitudes in estimation of the two parameters by ultrasound pointed out in this thesis are beam-vessel angle, vessel diameter measurement and flow direction assumption. Researchers and clinicians using these measurements in practice and research should be aware. The capability of ultrasound imaging to measure arterial AWM in the radial artery is demonstrated and it is found that the blood pressure waveform can also be derived from the arterial AWM.

Os equipamentos de imagens por ultrassom com varredura eletrônica usam transdutores que não se moldam à superfície a ser examinada, pois são rígidos. Há transdutores com curvaturas fixas para aplicações específicas. Em aplicações médicas, esse não é um problema na maioria dos casos, pois os tecidos do corpo humano tomam a forma da face do transdutor. Isso não ocorre quando há estruturas ósseas próximas às camadas externas de tecidos moles. Nas aplicações industriais as superfícies são sólidas e, portanto, não se ajustam à superfície do transdutor, sendo necessário uma camada variável de acoplamento acústico. A possibilidade de uso de um transdutor flexível exige que sua curvatura seja conhecida para o direcionamento correto do feixe acústico usado na formação de imagens. Assim sendo, um transdutor multielemento flexível apresentaria a vantagem de poder ser acoplado na superfície curva diretamente, tanto em aplicações médicas quanto industriais. Os transdutores flexíveis relatados na literatura científica não são compactos e dispõe de complicados sistemas de sensoriamento usados na determinação de curvaturas, além de demandar por sofisticados sistemas de aquisição e processamento dos sinais. Este trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de transdutores multielementos flexíveis compactos para serem acoplados diretamente em superfícies curvas de peças mecânicas ou do corpo humano. Neste trabalho os sensores de curvatura responsáveis pela medição da curvatura foram desenvolvidos segundo os princípios básicos de extensômetria e resistência dos materiais para serem embebidos nas camadas do transdutor flexível de ultrassom. No desenvolvimento, foram fabricadas quatro versões de transdutores, com frequências de 1 e 2,25MHz. Todos os materiais usados na fabricação dos protótipos foram especificados segundo suas propriedades mecânicas e acústicas. Os protótipos fabricados foram caracterizados tendo sido medidas a largura de banda de cada elemento do transdutor, o comprimento e a duração dos pulsos, e uma medida da resolução axial. Para o protótipo de 2,25MHz, uma medida estimada da resolução lateral foi feita pela simulação do campo acústico, considerando o transdutor curvado em uma superfície cilíndrica. Para se testar o desempenho dos protótipos, foram realizados diferentes testes de formação de imagem. A versão de transdutor flexível de 1MHz e sem sensor de curvatura foi curvado sobre um cilindro e imerso em um tanque com água para a realização de testes de formação de imagem usado na detecção de objetos e obstáculos. Para as versões de transdutores médicos com sensor de curvatura, construiu-se duas versões de phantom simulando uma interface óssea cortical densa dentro de um tecido mole humano. O phantom usado para testar o protótipo de 2,25MHz foi concebido por uma amostra de tíbia bovina fraturada embebida dentro de um material com propriedades acústicas muito próximas a da água. Os testes de imagem foram realizados com o transdutor de 2,25MHz curvado sobre a superfície cilíndrica do phantom. As imagens de ultrassom das regiões fraturadas do osso foram detectadas, e uma comparação entre as técnicas de varredura setorial e STA usadas na obtenção das imagens foram feitas. Mostrou-se que é possível fabricar, de uma forma simples, transdutores multielementos flexíveis mais compactos e dotados de sensor de curvatura, e sem a necessidade de se usar tecnologias sofisticadas e caras ou de se valer de sistemas complexos de formação e processamento de sinais. As imagens obtidas pelos protótipos mostraram que os protótipos podem ser usados em diferentes aplicações NDT na indústria. Em especial, o protótipo de 2,25MHz mostrou ainda que tem potencial no uso médico para a obtenção de imagens de fraturas em contornos ósseos mais densos. / Ultrasound image equipment with electronic scanning considers that transducers cannot take the shape of the surface to be examined because they are rigid. There are transducers with fixed curvatures for specific applications. In medical applications, this is not a serious problem in most cases, since the face of the transducer can be coupled to the soft tissues of the body. This does not occur when there are bone structures close to the external layers of soft tissue. In industrial applications, the surfaces are solid and therefore do not fit to the transducer surface, where a variable layer of acoustic coupling is necessary. The possibility of using a flexible transducer requires its curvature to be known in order to the correct the direction of the acoustic beam which will be used in imaging applications. Thus, a flexible array transducer would have the advantage of being directly coupled to the curved surface in medical and in industrial applications. Flexible ultrasound transducers reported in the scientific literature are not compact, having complex sensing systems used to determine curvature; furthermore, they require sophisticated signal acquisition and processing systems. The development of flexible compact ultrasound linear array transducers to be coupled directly onto curved surfaces of mechanical parts as well of the human body is proposed here. The bend sensors responsible for measuring the curvature were developed according to the basic principles of strain gauge in extensometry and strength of materials to be embedded in the layers of the flexible ultrasound transducer. During this development, four versions of transducers were manufactured, with frequencies of 1 and 2.25MHz. All the materials used in the prototypes manufacturing were selected based on their mechanical and acoustic properties. The manufactured prototypes were characterized in terms of measured parameters, such as the bandwidth of each transducer element, the length and duration of the pulses, and a measure of axial resolution. For the 2.25MHz prototype, the value of the lateral resolution was estimated by simulating the acoustic field considering the transducer curved over a cylindrical surface. In order to test the transducer prototypes, different ultrasound imaging tests were conducted. The 1MHz flexible transducer version without curvature sensor was bent over a cylinder and immersed in a water tank for performing image formation tests used to detect objects and obstacles. For the medical transducers version with curvature sensor, two versions of phantoms were constructed simulating a dense cortical bone interface located inside the soft human tissue. The phantom applied to test the 2.25 MHz prototype consists of a fractured sample of bovine tibia which was embedded within a material having acoustic properties very close to that of the water. Ultrasound imaging tests were performed with the 2.25MHz transducer curved over the cylindrical surface of the phantom. The regions of the fractured bone were detected in the ultrasound images, and a comparison between the STA and sector scanning techniques used for obtaining the images was made. The study showed that it is possible to manufacture flexible and more compact array transducers provided with curvature sensor, without the need of using sophisticated and expensive technologies or taking advantage of complex formation and signal processing systems. The images obtained by the prototypes showed that they can be employed in different NDT applications in the industry. Particularly, the 2.25MHz prototype also showed its potential for medical imaging fractures in dense bone contours.

This paper highlights two methods of examining the bovine pancreas by means of ultrasound, with a view to identifying advantages and disadvantages of the two techniques as well as testing and comparing their practicability. The goal is to evaluate the applicability of this intraoperative procedure to large animals - it is quite commonly used on humans - as well as present the resulting findings with regard to the ultrasonographic anatomy of the bovine pancreas. The sample consisted of 15 female beef cattle, none of which displayed evidence of any pancreatopathy based on their medical history, clinical examinations, and laboratory diagnostic testing. Transcutaneous and intraoperative sonographic examinations were performed on all 15 animals.

Ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) have tremendous potential for in vivo molecular imaging because of their high sensitivity and great spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging. However, the diagnostic potential of UCAs has been difficult to exploit because current contrast agents are based on pre-formed microbubbles, which can only detect cell surface receptors. In this work, we demonstrated that chemical reactions that generate gas forming molecules can be used to perform molecular imaging by ultrasound in vivo. This new approach for generating ultrasound contrast agents was demonstrated by imaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vivo with allylhydrazine, a compound that is converted into nitrogen and propylene gas after reacting with radical oxidants. We demonstrated that allylhydrazine encapsulated within liposomes (termed APLs) can detect a 10 uM concentration of radical oxidants by ultrasound, and can image oxidative stress in mice, induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), using a clinical ultrasound machine. We showed that a 1-2% increase in gas concentration above saturation can be detected acoustically and suggest that numerous biological targets can be imaged via appropriately designed gas forming reactions. This work was the first demonstration of in vivo imaging of ROS using ultrasound, and this work presented a new strategy to generate gas bubbles from reactions involving radical oxidants. We anticipate numerous applications of chemically generated microbubbles, given the excellent spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging, its widespread clinical use and its high sensitivity to detect gas bubbles.

Posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) is a common degenerative condition leading to a severe impairment of gait. There is currently no effective method to determine whether a patient with advanced PTTD would benefit from several months of bracing and physical therapy or ultimately require surgery. Tendon degeneration is closely associated with irreversible degradation of its collagen structure, leading to changes to its mechanical properties. If these properties could be monitored in vivo, it could be used to quantify the severity of tendonosis and help determine the appropriate treatment. Ultrasound elasticity imaging (UEI) is a real-time, noninvasive technique to objectively measure mechanical properties in soft tissue. It consists of acquiring a sequence of ultrasound frames and applying speckle tracking to estimate displacement and strain at each pixel. The goals of my dissertation were to 1) use acoustic simulations to investigate the performance of UEI during tendon deformation with different geometries; 2) develop and validate UEI as a potentially noninvasive technique for quantifying tendon mechanical properties in human cadaver experiments; 3) design a platform for UEI to measure mechanical properties of the PTT in vivo and determine whether there are detectable and quantifiable differences between healthy and diseased tendons. First, ultrasound simulations of tendon deformation were performed using an acoustic modeling program. The effects of different tendon geometries (cylinder and curved cylinder) on the performance of UEI were investigated. Modeling results indicated that UEI accurately estimated the strain in the cylinder geometry, but underestimated in the curved cylinder. The simulation also predicted that the out-of-the-plane motion of the PTT would cause a non-uniform strain pattern within incompressible homogeneous isotropic material. However, to average within a small region of interest determined by principal component analysis (PCA) would improve the estimation. Next, UEI was performed on five human cadaver feet mounted in a materials testing system (MTS) while the PTT was attached to a force actuator. A portable ultrasound scanner collected 2D data during loading cycles. Young's modulus was calculated from the strain, loading force and cross sectional area of the PTT. Average Young's modulus for the five tendons was (0.45±0.16GPa) using UEI. This was consistent with simultaneous measurements made by the MTS across the whole tendon (0.52±0.18GPa). We also calculated the scaling factor (0.12±0.01) between the load on the PTT and the inversion force at the forefoot, a measurable quantity in vivo. This study suggests that UEI could be a reliable in vivo technique for estimating the mechanical properties of the human PTT. Finally, we built a custom ankle inversion platform for in vivo imaging of human subjects (eight healthy volunteers and nine advanced PTTD patients). We found non-linear elastic properties of the PTTD, which could be quantified by the slope between the elastic modulus (E) and the inversion force (F). This slope (ΔE/ΔF), or Non-linear Elasticity Parameter (NEP), was significantly different for the two groups: 0.16±0.20 MPa/N for healthy tendons and 0.45±0.43 MPa/N for PTTD tendons. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.83±0.07, which indicated that the classifier system is valid. In summary, the acoustic modeling, cadaveric studies, and in vivo experiments together demonstrated that UEI accurately quantifies tendon mechanical properties. As a valuable clinical tool, UEI also has the potential to help guide treatment decisions for advanced PTTD and other tendinopathies.

Ultrasound is a well-established tool for medical imaging. It is non-invasive and relatively inexpensive, but the severe attenuation caused by propagation through tissue limits its effectiveness for deep imaging. In recent years, the ready availability of fast, inexpensive computer hardware has facilitated the adoption of signal coding and compression techniques to counteract the effects of attenuation. Despite widespread investigation of the topic, published opinions vary as to the relative suitability of discrete-phase-modulated and frequency-modulated (or continuous-phase-modulated) signals for ultrasonic imaging applications. This thesis compares the performance of discrete binary-phase coded pulses to that of frequency-modulated pulses at the higher imaging frequencies at which the effects of attenuation are most severe. The performance of linear and non-linear frequency modulated pulses with optimal side-lobe characteristics is compared to that of complementary binary-phase coded pulses by simulation and experiment. Binary-phase coded pulses are shown to be more robust to the affects of attenuation and non-ideal transducers. The comparatively poor performance of frequency-modulated pulses is explained in terms of the spectral characteristics of the signals and filters required to reduce side-lobes to levels acceptable for imaging purposes. In theory, complementary code sets like bi-phase Golay pairs offer optimum side-lobe performance at the expense of a reduction in frame rate. In practice, misalignment caused by motion in the medium can have a severe impact on imaging performance. A novel motioncompensated imaging algorithm designed to reduce the occurrence of motion artefacts and eliminate the reduction in frame-rate associated with complementary-coding is presented. This is initially applied to conventional sequential-scan B-mode imaging then adapted for use in synthetic aperture B-mode imaging. Simulation results are presented comparing the performance of the motion-compensated sequential-scan and synthetic aperture systems with that of simulated systems using uncoded and frequency-modulated excitation pulses.

This thesis presents the investigations conducted in the use of ultrasonic technology to measure two-phase flow in both horizontal and vertical pipe flows which is important for the petroleum industry. However, there are still key challenges to measure parameters of the multiphase flow accurately. Four methods of ultrasonic technologies were explored. The Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) was first applied to the ultrasound signals of air-water flow on horizontal flow for measurement of the parameters of the two- phase slug flow. The use of the HHT technique is sensitive enough to detect the hydrodynamics of the slug flow. The results of the experiments are compared with correlations in the literature and are in good agreement. Next, experimental data of air-water two-phase flow under slug, elongated bubble, stratified-wavy and stratified flow regimes were used to develop an objective flow regime classification of two-phase flow using the ultrasonic Doppler sensor and artificial neural network (ANN). The classifications using the power spectral density (PSD) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) features have accuracies of 87% and 95.6% respectively. This is considerably more promising as it uses non-invasive and non-radioactive sensors. Moreover, ultrasonic pulse wave transducers with centre frequencies of 1MHz and 7.5MHz were used to measure two-phase flow both in horizontal and vertical flow pipes. The liquid level measurement was compared with the conductivity probes technique and agreed qualitatively. However, in the vertical with a gas volume fraction (GVF) higher than 20%, the ultrasound signals were attenuated. Furthermore, gas-liquid and oil-water two-phase flow rates in a vertical upward flow were measured using a combination of an ultrasound Doppler sensor and gamma densitometer. The results showed that the flow gas and liquid flow rates measured are within ±10% for low void fraction tests, water-cut measurements are within ±10%, densities within ±5%, and void fractions within ±10%. These findings are good results for a relatively fast flowing multiphase flow.

Thesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology. / Pulsed Ultrasound Velocimetry combined with Pressure Difference (PUV+PD) measurement is a non-invasive in-line rheometric technique which is used to analyse the complex flow properties of industrial fluids for quality control purposes. Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and Technical Research Institute of Sweden (SP) have developed and patented a new PUV+PD based system, called Flow-Viz™. Despite this advancement, the system and ultrasound sensor technology have not been fully tested and evaluated in a wide range of industrial fluids. Acoustic characterisation tests were carried out at SP, with the aim of understanding the ultrasound beam properties after propagating through industrial stainless steel (316L) pipe walls. For these tests, a high-precision robotic XYZ-scanner and needle hydrophone setup were used. Different ultrasound sensor configurations were mounted to a stainless steel pipe while using different coupling media between the transducer-to-wedge and sensor wedge-to-pipe boundaries. The ultrasound beam propagation after the wall interface was measured by navigating the needle hydrophone within a predefined 2-dimensional spatial grid. The most suitable coupling material was determined from the acoustic characterisation, and then used in the in-line rheological characterisation tests to evaluate the performance of the Flow-VizTM rheometric unit against conventional tube viscometry. The in-line rheological tests were conducted with bentonite, kaolin and Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) model fluids. The flow loop used consisted of three different pipe test sections; and two concentrations of each fluid were tested in order to ascertain the consistency of the measurements. The in-line rheological tests showed good agreement (±15%) between the two techniques and Flow-VizTM was able to provide important data at very low shear rates. Acoustic characterisation indicated that variations in the beam properties were highly dependent on the acoustic couplants used to mount the sensors to the stainless steel pipes. Furthermore, the in-line results showed the effectiveness of Flow-VizTM as an industrial rheometer. The non-invasive ultrasound sensor technology, was for the first time acoustically characterised through stainless steel. This information will now be used to further optimise the unique technology for advanced industrial applications, e.g. oil drilling fields, complex cement grout and food processing applications.

A magneto-acustografia ou, em uma nova terminologia mais abrangente, vibromagneto-acustografia (VMA) é uma técnica que combina técnicas magnéticas e acústicas, a fim de observar o comportamento visco-elástico de um meio material marcado com partículas magnéticas (alvo). A força magnética oscilatória de frequência () provoca, dentro do alvo, movimento das partículas e do meio material com frequência (2). O feixe acústico pulso-eco utilizado para detectar o movimento das estruturas, tem uma frequência de repetição de pulso (PRF), no mínimo, cinco vezes maior que a frequência do movimento do alvo. Assim, a proposta deste projeto foi desenvolver um protocolo de aquisição, processamento e análise da técnica VMA, por meio da implementação de uma plataforma automatizada de aquisição, que forneça dados estruturados para posteriormente através de uma plataforma de processamento analisar diferentes aplicações da técnica VMA em fantomas e in vivo. A primeira etapa foi desenvolver a plataforma de aquisição utilizando um equipamento de ultrassom diagnóstico por imagem. Nesta etapa foi desenvolvido um software, com interface gráfica de usuário, escrito em C++ e Qt com a função de automatizar a excitação magnética e a aquisição acústica de alta resolução temporal, foram definidos os protocolos padrão dos modos de excitação magnética e de aquisição acústica em termos da taxa de aquisição dos frames ultrassônicos para gerar movimentos oscilatórios ou ondas de cisalhamento. Em seguida, os dados provenientes das aquisições foram estruturados por meio de um cabeçalho para transferência para outros computadores através do protocolo TCP/IP. Depois foi desenvolvida um software, com interface gráfica de usuário, para a fase de processamento e análise. O processamento dos frames adquiridos em modo radiofrequência (RF) consistiu em obter mapas de deslocamentos ou velocidades das estruturas internas do meio material utilizado como alvo. Nesta etapa adaptamos o algoritmo de correlação cruzada normalizada com correção de pico de máxima correlação x e obtivemos mapas otimizados para a técnica VMA. A avaliação da otimização destes mapas foi baseada na avaliação entre a resolução espacial e tempo computacional. A partir do uso destes softwares em experimentos com fantomas e in vivo foram desenvolvidos métodos de análise da frequência dos deslocamentos e segmentação/caracterização de ondas de cisalhamento em termos da sua velocidade e atenuação. Por fim, foi implementado um sistema VMA automatizado composto, por uma plataforma de aquisição embarcada em equipamento de diagnóstico por ultrassom para aquisição de mapas de RF e, que posteriormente eram transferidos para um computador com hardware superior para geração de mapas de deslocamento do meio material. Os mapas foram analisados para determinação de parâmetros visco-elásticos. Além disso, através da implementação da técnica VMA, viabilizou-se estudos clínicos de maneira rápida e eficiente, por exemplo, análises gástricas após a digestão de alimentos marcados com partículas magnéticas e produção de ondas de cisalhamento para caracterização viscoelástica. / The magneto motive ultrasound (MMUs) is a novel technique, which combines magnetism and acoustics, in order to observe viscoelastic behavior of medium labeled with inserted magnetic particles. The magnetic force with modulation frequency () creates a mechanical disturbance in the object of study with twice the modulation frequency (2). Was applied a pulse-echo ultrasonic beamforming with pulse repetition frequency (PRF) at least five times greater than frequency of internal structure movement. The aim of this study was to develop an acquisition, processing and analysis protocol for MMUs through implementation of an automated platform for acquisition, which provides structured datasets for further processing and analysis of different applications (tissue mimicking phantoms or in vivo) of MMUs. First step was to develop the acquisition platform using an ultrasound research interface (URI). At this stage was developed a software with graphical user interface (GUI) written using C++ and Qt. This software automates magnetic excitation and acoustic acquisition, which has high frame rate. In addition, were defined default presets to provide oscillatory movement or shear waves. Then was created datasets acquired were structured and a header and transferred to an external personal computer through TCP/IP network. Second, the processing software with graphical user interface for processing and analyzing was developed. The frames acquired in radiofrequency (RF) mode were processed into displacement or velocity maps of medium internal structures. In this stage, we adapted a cross correlation algorithm to optimize for MMUs datasets. The evaluation of these maps was based on tradeoff between spatial resolution and computation time. Protocols for analysis of motion frequency and segmentation/characterization of shear waves, extracting velocity and attenuation for experiments performed with phantoms or in vivo were developed . In this work, it was implemented an automated MMUs system integrated with a software framework running on an ultrasound research interface (URI), which is used for acquisition of RF maps, further transferred for a PC with robust hardware to process into displacement maps. These maps were analyzed to obtain viscoelastic parameters of the medium. Moreover, this implementation of MMUs enables clinical fast and efficient trials for gastric evaluation of meals with magnetic particles and shear wave production for viscoelastic characterization.

Orientadores: Eduardo Tavares Costa, Marco Antonio Gutierrez, Wilson Mathias Jr / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T12:34:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lopes_MardenLeonardi_D.pdf: 14437359 bytes, checksum: 8c588b472c6179cb808b688687aacf5b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Embora alguns equipamentos atuais de imagem por ultra-som. ofereçam ferramentas específicas para estudos de Ecocardíografi a por Contraste de Microbolhas (ECM) e apesar do potencial comprovado da técnica para a análise quantitativa da perfusão miocárdica, seu uso se restringe praticamente à interpretação qualitativa (visual) das imagens clínicas. Este fato é normalmente atribuído à inexistência de métodos de quantificação rápidos, e ao mesmo tempo robustos, para utilização direta na rotina clínica. Os métodos propostos na literatura e alguns softwares, disponibilizados recentemente no mercado requerem, quantificações offlim, principalmente devido à falta ou ineficiência das ferramentas para alinhamento das imagens da seqüência de ECM e para colocação de regiões de interesse (ROls). O objetivo desta tese foi o desenvolvimento de um método rápido e de fácil utilização para quantificação setni-automática da perfusão miocárdica por ECM, cora ênfase na automatização do alinhamento das imagens e da colocação de ROls. Para o alinhamento (translação e rotação) foram desenvolvidos dois algoritmos baseados em Templaíe Matching, técnicas de busca rápida e correlação. A colocação de ROls é feita de forma automática e padronizada a partir de um contorno da parede miocárdica desenhado pelo usuário. Foi implementado um programa para quantificação em ECM com base no método desenvolvido e este protótipo foi testado com 30 seqüências de ECM (570 imagens). Testes quantitativos demostraram precisão média no processo de alinhamento de 1 pixel (para translação) e 1 grau (para rotação), com exatidão aproximada de ± 1 pixel e de± i grau. Testes qualitativos indicaram colocação ótima das ROls em cerca de 67% das seqüências analisadas. De forma gerai, os resultados de quantificação foram equivalentes aos de um processo com alinhamento automático e ajuste manual de ojfsets remanescentes, ou mesmo aos de um processo com alinhamento de quadros totalmente manual. A variabilidade intra-observador verificada foi pequena e estatisticamente insignificante. O tempo de processamento do protótipo baseado no método desenvolvido foi aproximadamente 50% menor que o cie um processo de quantificação equivalente com ajuste manual dos quadros pré-alinhados / Abstract: Although some current commercial ultrasound machines incorporate tools for Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography (MCE) and the technique has a great potential for quantitative analysis of myocardial perfusion, its use is pratically restricted to qualitative (visual) interpretation of clinical data. This is due to the lack of fast and robust quantification systems to be used in the clinical practice. Quantification methods found in the literature and some commercial softwares now available demand extra time for offline quantification, mainly due to the lack or inefficiency of images alignment and regions of interest (ROIs) placement. The objective of this thesis was the development of a fast, easy-to-use semi-automatic method for perfusion quantification in MCE, emphasizing the automatization of images alignment and of the placement of regions of interest. To align images (translation and rotation) we have developed two algorithms based on template matching, fast search algorithms and correlation. ROPs placement over myocardium wall is automatic and standardized and starts with the user drawing the myocardium borders. It has been implemented a software for MCE quantification based on the developed method and this prototype was tested with thirty MCE sequences (570 images). Quantitative tests have shown mean precision of 1 pixel (translation) and 1 degree (rotation) in the alignment process, and accuracy around ± 1 pixel and ± 1 degree. Qualitative tests have shown optimal placement of ROIs over myocardium in about 67% of tested sequences. In general, quantification results have shown that the method performance is similar to a quantification process with automatic alignment and manual adjustment of remaining shifts (translation and rotation), or also to a process with a full manual alignment of frames. Intra-observer variability was small and statiscally insignificant. The computational time of the prototype based on the developed method was around 50% less than the computational time of a similar quantification process with manual adjustments of pre-aligned frames / Doutorado / Engenharia Biomedica / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica