A real-time processing system fur pulsation defection in neonatal cranial ultrasonogram

In order to observe artery pulsation in the neonatal cranium at the site of pediatric diagnosis, a real-time processing system was developed for continuous detection and display of artery pulsation, from the moving images of the neonatal cranial ultrasonogram. The pulsation images were continuously generated by calculating the absolute difference between each pixel value at the two images corresponding to about half a heartbeat interval. The system was confirmed to process and continuously display at intervals of about 150 ms while capturing the echo images at the video rate of 30 ms; showing that the system performance was good enough to observe the artery pulsation in real-time. By monitoring the pulsation images continuously redisplayed, the critical conditions of the echo image such as the sway of the ultrasound probe could be easily avoided at the site of diagnosis.