Other Physics Commons^™

International Consensus On Lung Function Testing During Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond, Aisling Mcgowan, Pierantonio Laveneziana, Sam Bayat, Nicole Beydon, P.W. Boros, Felip Burgos, Matjaž Fležar, Monika Franczuk, Maria-Alejandra Galarza, Adrian H. Kendrick, Enrico Lombardi, Jellien Makonga-Braaksma, Meredith C. Mccormack, Laurent Plantier, Sanja Stanojevic, Irene Steenbruggen, Bruce Thompson, Allan L. Coates, Jack Wanger, Donald W. Cockcroft, Bruce Culver, Karl Sylvester, Frans De Jongh

Articles

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has negatively affected the delivery of respiratory diagnostic services across the world due to the potential risk of disease transmission during lung function testing. Community prevalence, reoccurrence of COVID-19 surges and the emergence of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 have impeded attempts to restore services. Finding consensus on how to deliver safe lung function services for both patients attending and for staff performing the tests are of paramount importance. This international statement presents the consensus opinion of 23 experts in the field of lung function and respiratory physiology balanced with evidence from the reviewed literature. It describes …

An Investigation Of The Detection Capability Of Pulsed Wave Duplex Doppler Of Low Grade Stenosis Using Ultrasound Contrast Agent Microbubbles – An In-Vitro Study, Jacinta Browne, Deirdre King, Andrew Fagan, Deepa Chari, Carmel Moran

Articles

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate whether clinically used ultrasonic contrast agents improved the accuracy of spectral Doppler ultrasound in the detection of low grade (< 50%) renal artery stenosis. Low grade stenoses in the renal artery are notoriously difficult to reliably detect using Doppler ultrasound due to difficulties such as overlying fat and bowel gas.

Methods: A range of anatomically-realistic renal artery phantoms with varying low degrees of stenosis (0, 30 and 50%) were constructed and peak velocity data was measured from within the pre-stenotic and mid-stenotic regions in each phantom, for both unenhanced and contrast-enhanced spectral Doppler data acquisitions. The effect of a 20mm overlying fat layer on the ultrasound beam distortion and phase aberration, and hence on the measured peak velocity data, was also …

Use Of Novel Anthropomorphic Breast Ultrasound Phantoms For Radiology Resident Education, Jacinta Browne, Chris Gu, Robert Fazzio, Andrew Fagan, Donald Tradup, Nicholas Hangiandreou

Articles

Purpose: This study evaluated the training and assessment role of anthropomorphic breast ultrasound phantoms which simulated both the morphological and sonographic characteristics of breast tissue, including lesions, in a group of radiology residents at a large academic medical center. Methods: This was a prospective study involving 9 residents across all years (2^nd–4^th year) of a radiology residency program. Baseline assessments of all residents ability to detect and characterize lesions in P-I were carried out, followed by a two-hour teaching session on the same phantom. All residents underwent a post-training, final assessment on P-II to evaluate changes in …

Broadband Acoustic Measurement Of The Agar-Based Tissue Mimicking Material – A Longitudinal Study, Adela Rabell-Montiel, Jacinta Browne, Stephen Pye, Tom Anderson, Carmel Moran

Articles

Commercially available ultrasound quality assurance test phantoms rely upon the long-term acoustic stability of tissue-mimicking-materials (TMMs). The measurement of the acoustic properties can be technically challenging and it is important to ensure its stability. The standard technique is to film-wrap samples of TMM and to measure the acoustic properties in a water bath. In this study, a modified technique is proposed whereby the samples of TMM are measured in a preserving fluid that is intended to maintain their characteristics. The acoustic properties were evaluated using a broadband pulse-echo substitution technique over the frequency range of 4.5 – 50 MHz at …

Quantitative Assessment Of Blood Coagulation By Cold Atmospheric Plasma, Caitlin Heslin, Daniela Boehm, Vladimir Milosavljevic, Michelle Laycock, Patrick Cullen, Paula Bourke

Articles

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is produced by ionizing a chosen gas, thereby creating charged and reactive species. The reactive species generated are capable of inducing a range of biomedically relevant interactions including blood coagulation. However, the underlying biochemical processes of plasma-assisted blood coagulation are largely unknown, and data quantifying blood clot formation or the impact of system parameters on the intensity of the blood clot are scarce. In this study, blood coagulation was quantified by measuring hemoglobin absorbance. System parameters of the kINPen plasma jet were investigated and compared, including treatment time, distance from the plasma source and gas flow …