Virtual ultrasonic waveform acquisition and analysis system based on LabVIEW and PCI-12400 A/D card

A-mode medical ultrasound device is important tool for clinical examinations in many clinical departments, especially ophthalmology. However, many complex or obscure features can not be identified well using these existing instruments, the reason is that ultrasonic echo waveforms from body contain more plentiful information than is utilized in conventional A-model medical ultrasound instrument, so more sophisticated procedures and algorithms may be required to process the acquired waveform. In this study, a flexible PC-based virtual instrument system for acquisition and analysis of ultrasonic echo signal was developed based on LabVIEW graphical programming language (National Instruments, USA) and a high digitization-rate A/D sample card PCI-12400 (CompuScope, Gage, Canada). Ultrasound speed and ultrasound attenuation coefficients were computed in this virtual instrument system. In addition, this system can provide an adaptable tool that may be modified to suit a given application, with scope for future implementation in the field.