Three dimensional full-wave nonlinear acoustic simulations of ultrasound imaging and therapy in the entire human body

One approach to simulating ultrasound images is to make approximations that can reduce the physics to systems that have a low computational cost. Here a maximalist approach is taken, computational cost is given a secondary priority, and the full three dimensional wave physics is simulated with finite differences. The Visible Human project is a 3D data set of the entire human body that was genera teed with photographs of 0.33 mm cryosections. This data set is converted into 3D acoustical maps. A full-wave nonlinear acoustic simulation tool is be used to propagate ultrasound with 1D and 2D ultrasound arrays with an arbitrary emission (pulse shape, duration), transducer geometry (linear, curved), and transducer acoustical properties (lens, backing impedance). The first simulated 3D ultrasound images based on propagation physics are presented.