Preparation and Evaluation of Polymer-Based Ultrasound Gel and Its Application in Ultrasonography

Ultrasound imaging is a widely used technique in every health care center and hospital. Ultrasound gel is used as a coupling medium in all ultrasound procedures to replace air between the transducer and the patient’s skin, as ultrasound waves have trouble in traveling through air. This research was performed to formulate an inexpensive alternative to commercially available ultrasound gel as it is expensive and imported from other countries. Different formulations with different concentrations of carbopol 980 (CAR 980) and methylparaben were prepared with natural ingredients such as aloe vera gel and certain available chemicals that have no harmful effects on the skin. To justify the efficiency of the formulations; necessary physicochemical characteristics such as visual clarity, homogeneity, transparency, skin irritation, antibacterial activity, pH, stability, spreadability, conductivity, acoustic impedance, viscosity, and cost were evaluated. Moreover, a comparison study was also conducted with commercially available ultrasound gel that was utilized as a control. All samples showed excellent transparency and no microbial growth. S1 was the only formulation that met all of the requirements for commercial ultrasound gel and produced images that were similar to those produced by commercial ultrasound gel. So, this formulation could be used as an alternative to expensive commercial ultrasound gel for taking images in hospitals and medical centers.

Ultrasound-activable piezoelectric membranes for accelerating wound healing

Piezoelectric membranes activated by ultrasound waves can provide electrical stimulation to promote wound healing.

Insights on the Molecular Behavior of Polypropylene in the Process of Ultrasonic Injection Molding

Product miniaturization is a constant trend in industries that demand ever-smaller products that can be mass produced while maintaining high precision dimensions in the final pieces. Ultrasonic micro injection molding (UMIM) technology has emerged as a polymer processing technique capable of achieving the mass production of polymeric parts with micro-features, while still assuring replicability, repeatability, and high precision, contrary to the capabilities of conventional processing technologies of polymers. In this study, it is shown that the variation of parameters during the UMIM process, such as the amplitude of the ultrasound waves and the processing time, lead to significant modification on the molecular structure of the polymer. The variation of both the amplitude and processing time contribute to chain scission; however, the processing time is a more relevant factor for this effect as it is capable of achieving a greater chain scission in different areas of the same specimen. Further, the presence of polymorphism within the samples produced by UMIM is demonstrated. Similarly to conventional processes, the UMIM technique leads to some degree of chain orientation, despite the fact that it is carried out in a relatively small time and space. The results presented here aim to contribute to the optimization of the use of the UMIM process for the manufacture of polymeric micro parts.

POSTERIOR SEGMENT PATHOLOGIES IN DENSE LENS CHANGES

INTRODUCTION : B scan makes use of high frequency ultrasound waves which are reected back and are converted to electric signals. The data which is not available from the clinical examination can be visualised by using the ultrasound B-scan. It is of immense visual prognostic value to modify the surgical plan in eyes who have hazy media. AIM : Evaluation of posterior segment using ultrasound B scan(US-B) in patients with dense lens changes Co relation of the type of dense lens changes with different posterior segment pathologies. METHODOLOGY : Study sample : 100 Study period : 1st July 2019 to 31st June 2020 Study duration :12 months Study area :All the patients presenting to Ophthalmology OPD at Meenakshi medical college and research institute , Kanchipuram ,Tamil Nadu. RESULTS : Majority of the B-scans turned out to be normal in dense lens changes. Posterior vitreous detachment, Asteroid hyalosis and Retinal detachment are the common abnormalities seen in the decreasing order of their occurrence.

A Transparent Ultrasound Array for Real-time Optical, Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging

Objective and Impact Statement: Simultaneous imaging of ultrasound and optical contrasts can help map structural, functional and molecular biomarkers inside living subjects with high spatial resolution. There is a need to develop a platform to facilitate this multimodal imaging capability to improve diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. Introduction: Currently, combining ultrasound, photoacoustic and optical imaging modalities is challenging due to complex arrangements, in order to co-align both optical and ultrasound waves within the same field of view, because conventional ultrasound transducer arrays are optically opaque. Methods: One elegant solution is to make the ultrasound transducer transparent to light. Here, we demonstrate a novel transparent ultrasound transducer (TUT) liner array fabricated using a transparent lithium niobate piezoelectric material for real-time multimodal imaging. Results: The TUT array consisted of 64 elements and centered at ~6 MHz frequency. We demonstrate a quad-mode ultrasound, Doppler ultrasound, photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging in real-time using the TUT array directly coupled to the tissue mimicking phantoms. Conclusion: The TUT array successfully showed a multimodal imaging capability, and has potential applications in diagnosing cancer, neuro and vascular diseases, including image-guided endoscopy and wearable imaging.

Sound speed uncertainty in Acousto-Electric Tomography

The goal in Acousto-Electric Tomography (AET) is to reconstruct an image of the unknown electric conductivity inside an object from boundary measurements of electrostatic currents and voltages collected while the object is penetrated by propagating ultrasound waves. This problem is a coupled-physics inverse problem. Accurate knowledge of the propagating ultrasound wave is usually assumed and required, but in practice tracking the propagating wave is hard due to inexact knowledge of the interior acoustic properties of the object. In this work, we model uncertainty in the sound speed of the acoustic wave, and formulate a suitable reconstruction method for the interior power density and conductivity. We also establish theoretical error bounds, and show that the suggested approach can be understood as a regularization strategy for the inverse problem. Finally, we numerically simulate the sound speed variations from a numerical breast tissue model, and computationally explore the effect of using an inaccurate sound speed on the error in reconstructions. Our results show that with reasonable uncertainty in the sound speed reliable reconstruction is still possible.

Microstructural characterization and corrosion behaviour of ultrasound-assisted synthesis of Ni–xCo–yTiO2 nanocomposites in alkaline environments

Electroplated protective thin film is highly promising materials for advanced applications such as high corrosion resistance and energy conversion and storage. This work is to investigate the effect of Co content and TiO2 on the corrosion resistance of Ni–xCo–yTiO2 nanocomposites in alkaline media. The nanocrystalline Ni–xCo–yTiO2 composites were electroplated using the sulfate-gluconate bath containing the suspended TiO2 nanograins under ultrasound waves and mechanical stirring. The microstructure and corrosion behavior of the electroplated Ni–xCo–yTiO2 nanocomposites have been investigated via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The XRD pattern of the electroplated Ni–Co matrices with 1–75% of cobalt arranged in face-centered cubic (FCC) system, while the electroplated Ni–Co matrices of further Co% more than 76% converted to hexagonal closed-package (HCP) crystal system. The surface of the Ni–xCo–yTiO2 nanocomposites after immersion in 1.0 M KOH electrolytes was investigated via SEM, atomic force microscopy and EDX. The results displayed that the rate of corrosion of the different composites decreased by combining Ni, Co and the inclusion of TiO2. The improved corrosion resistance of Ni–47Co–3.77TiO2 composites is due to the formation of Ni/Co oxy/hydroxide layer and rebelling effect of OH− by TiO2 sites, which reduces the attacking effect of OH−, O2, and H2O, and notably retards the overall corrosion processes.

Synthesis, Characterization and USW Sensor of PEO/PMMA/PVP Doped with Zirconium Dioxide Nanoparticles

Piezoelectric phenomena is very important for various applications such as ultrasound waves (USW) sensor and pressure sensors. The raw materials from polyethylene oxide (PEO), Poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA) and poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) polymer blends were doped with 0.02,0.04 and 0.06 wt% from zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) nanoparticles (NPs) as a nanocomposites (NCs). The resultant films were prepared by dry casting method. The optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to satisfied from the SiO2NPs diffusion in the blend. The SiO2NPs were good diffused inside the blend with some weak aggregation happened in the high content of NPs. The composite films were diagnosed by FTIR. The USW properties were measured for k1 spaceman with various frequencies (25,30,…,45) MHz. The USW coefficients were clearly effected by the frequency varied. The resulted composite film was succeeded to be used as USW sensor, also these findings could help to realize these new NCs as promising materials for wide applications, such as backlight, car glass and UV filters.

Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound: An Overview

Application of ultrasound contrast medium to traditional medical sonography is known as Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) that enhances contrast during ultrasnography by increasing ultrasound backscatter (reflection) of the ultrasound waves. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can be used in diagnostic imaging, organ edge delineation, echocardiography, blood volume perfusion, lesion characterization, drug or gene delivery, molecular imaging etc. Different types of contrast media used in ultrasonography are agitated saline, microbubbles, nanobubbles etc. Adverse reactions of contrast agent include headache, hypersensitivity abdominal pain, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, hypertension, leg cramps etc. Although CEUS is popular now a days but with certain limitations such as more heat production with increase in frequency, short life of microbubbles, continuous monitoring, occasional microvasculature rupture and haemolysis. In conclusion, CEUS is an advanced technique for absolute quantification of tissue perfusion, drugs and genes delivery, differential diagnosis and monitoring therapy response.