The frontal 3-D imaging for PTCA using ultrasonic ring array probe

There is no effective method to measure the size and shape of a plaque of arteriosclerosis in the PTCA operation. Therefore the authors have proposed a method to measure the size of a plaque in a blood vessel. In this paper, they propose a new image reconstruction algorithm for this measurement method. In the new algorithm, they set the model of reflection of the ultrasound such that the ultrasound is reflected in a fixed direction at whole points of measurement space. Inner products of the measured signal and the calculated signals using this model show the probability of a reflector's existence at a point. In addition, the authors can reconstruct a 3-D image of the reflector to display this probability. When using this new algorithm, the authors can obtain an image with a high S/N ratio in a short time.