Quantitative modeling of the anisotropy of ultrasonic backscatter from canine myocardium

Reports extensions and new results of the First Time Domain Born approximation model used by Mottley and Miller (1982) to describe the anisotropy of ultrasonic backscatter measured in canine myocardium. The interaction of an ultrasonic plane wave impulse with a single cylindrical scatterer using time and frequency domain approaches is reviewed. Myocardial tissue is modeled as a suspension of aligned cylindrically shaped scatterers uniformly distributed in a homogeneous medium. The authors propose extensions to this model to deal with nonideal scatterer orientation, by introducing axial distribution functions and scatterer size distributions based on histology, modeled as a uniform distribution. The backscatter coefficient in the range 2.0-8.0 MHz is calculated. An algorithm to compute the average differential scattering cross section is presented. Ultrasonic elastic properties of myocardial tissue are discussed. Results of the anisotropy of the numerically computed backscatter parameters for model media having nominal mechanical and acoustic properties of canine myocardial tissue are presented and compared to available experimental data along with discussion of possible conclusions.< >