Portable High Resolution C-scan Ultrasound Camera for Diagnosis of Bone Fractures and Soft Tissue Injury

In this project, Imperium Inc., together with Georgetown University Medical Center, propose to build a speckle-free, non-ionizing, high resolution C-scan ultrasound system for detection of small fractures and foreign objects in soft tissue. This ‘ultrasound camera’, contrasts to B-mode ultrasonic devices which require extensive training to operate. The C-scan device is free of any distortion seen typically on conventional devices. With this device, a medic could quickly detect small bone fractures and foreign objects and quantify the depth in real time. It could be determined whether or not an injury with pain was a fracture and require evacuation or without a fracture could be treated locally. The images generated from the C-scan device are striking in their fluoroscopy-like appearance. Due to the use of a semiconductor imaging array, the ultrasound signals can be directly acquired without using a reconstruction algorithm. This array detects and converts the ultrasound to electronic signals, similar to a digital camera. Preliminary results using this device show improved capabilities over both x-ray and B-scan in finding foreign objects in soft tissue.