CD Laboratory for Mathematical modelling and simulations for next generations of ultrasound devices

This CD Laboratory focuses on developing new methods for prenatal ultrasound diagnostics. The long-term goal is to improve the diagnoses of patients who are currently difficult to image.

Ultrasound diagnostics have significantly changed the standard of medical examinations during pregnancy over the last 40 years. Today it is used as both a screening and diagnostic tool to examine the fetus.

Ultrasound is now routinely applied for determining the duration of pregnancy, detecting multiples, identifying chromosomal abnormalities, physical impairments, and the risk of premature birth, among many other things. Increasingly, ultrasound is also being used for intra-uterine treatment of the fetus, i.e. in case of heart defects. All these applications require adequate imaging quality.

However, there are situations where image quality is insufficient. Studies have shown that changes in the speed of sound in the abdominal layer drastically reduce image quality during fetal examinations. These changes are caused by layers of fat and muscles, which present an increasing problem for ultrasound imaging. In this CD Laboratory, methods from astronomy used to compensate for atmospheric turbulence in the imaging of stars with optical telescopes are being investigated to evaluate their effectiveness in compensation for disturbances in ultrasound imaging caused by changes in the speed of sound.

Detecting and compensating for changes in the speed of sound require a detailed understanding of the underlying physical principles and adequate mathematical modelling of image generation. This CD Laboratory researches image-generating algorithms based on mathematical models and their use in prototypes of new ultrasound devices, simulates their performance numerically, and evaluates them in medical practice. The research is interdisciplinary, involving mathematicians, medical physicists, and physicians.