Transcranial ultrasonography system for visualizing skull and brain surface aided by fuzzy expert system

A conventional ultrasonography system can noninvasively provide human tissue and blood flow velocity information with real-time processing. In general, since the human skull prevents the disclosure of brain anatomy, we usually placed the sensor at the anterior and superior attachment site of the upper ear (the posterior temporal window) in adults. Due to this limitation, the conventional system cannot obtain transcranial information from arbitrary places in the skull. This paper describes a transcranial sonography system that can visualize the shape of the skull and brain surface from any point to examine skull fracture and brain disease such as cerebral atrophy and epidural or subdural hematoma. In this system, we develop anatomical knowledge of the human head, and we employ fuzzy inference to determine the skull and brain surface. To evaluate our method, three models are applied: the phantom model, the animal model with soft tissue, and the animal model with brain tissue. In all models, the shapes of the skull and the brain tissue surface are successfully determined. Next, the method is applied to two adults. As a result, we have determined the skin surface, skull surface, skull bottom, and brain tissue surface for the subjects´ foreheads. Consequently, our system can provide the skull and brain surface information using three-dimensional shapes.