Determination of sound speed in biological tissues based on frequency analysis of pulse response

The sound speed in biological tissues provides important diagnostic and treatment planning information. Conventional methods of sound-speed determination generally require that transducers make physical contact with specimens in order to measure thickness and travel time in the time domain. The physical contact may cause deformation and affect blood flow and the measurement of travel time in the time domain may be sensitive to waveform distortion due to tissue inhomogeneity and surface roughness. A method for determination of the sound speed is proposed in which the sound travel time in the sample and the difference in total travel time from the transducer to the rigid reflector due to the presence of the sample are estimated in the frequency domain and which does not require physical contact of ultrasonic probes to living or freshly excised tissue specimens. Ultrasonic speed measurements in silicone rubber and acrylic resin specimens verified the method validity. The standard deviation of the measurements over a 10- x 10-mm area is less than 4 m/s. Sound-speed distribution measurements of porcine muscle are in agreement with previously published results.