Beyond 30 MHz [applications of high-frequency ultrasound imaging]

TLDR

Medical ultrasound typically uses 3–10 MHz to resolve ~1 mm structures, but advances in transducer materials since the 1980s enabled 30–100 MHz devices that can image subsurface structures with microscopic resolution. The article aims to present the fundamentals of high‑frequency ultrasound imaging and review six key applications, including eye, skin, intravascular, intra‑articular, flow, and mouse embryonic imaging. The authors explain the underlying physics of high‑frequency ultrasound and illustrate its use through case studies of the six applications. The examples demonstrate the broad potential of high‑frequency ultrasound across diverse medical and biological imaging scenarios.

Abstract

Most medical ultrasound imaging systems operate in the frequency range from 3 to 10 MHz and can resolve objects approximately 1 mm in size. In the mid 1980s, new transducer materials led to the development of the first transducers suitable for high-frequency (30-100 MHz) clinical imaging. These high-frequency transducers can provide images of subsurface structures with microscopic resolution. In this article, the authors introduce the basic principles of high-frequency ultrasound imaging and discuss six applications of this new technology: eye imaging, skin imaging, catheter-based intravascular imaging, intra-articular imaging, high-frequency flow imaging, and in-vivo imaging of mouse embryonic development. These examples illustrate a few of the potential applications of high-frequency ultrasound in medicine and biology.