Measuring the Dimensions of a Thin Cylindrical Vessel by Processing Ultrasonic Reflections with an MEM Cepstrum

Many different methods have been developed for the measurement of blood vessel dimensions, such as diameter and wall thickness. Especially for microvessels, optical and electronic techniques have been widely used [1–4]. With such techniques, the vessel must be observed under a transparent light source during the invasive operation. In contrast, for noninvasive evaluation of living tissue dimensions, ultrasonic echography is commonly used [5]. The diameter and wall thickness of the artery are visually observed from an echo signal chart [6] or by the ultrasonic echo-tracking method with a phased locked loop [7]. However, the conventional pulse-echo method has only a limited range of resolution, inversely proportional to the frequency bandwidth of the measurement system.