Analysis of ultrasonic scattering in blood via a continuum approach

Since the pioneering work by Reid et al. on measuring ultrasonic scattering in blood, this phenomenon has been extensively studied both theoretically and experimentally. The knowledge on ultrasonic scattering properties of blood is needed for the design of ultrasonic methods for measuring blood flow, and a better interpretation of ultrasonic images. The development of high frequency intravascular or intracardiac imaging devices raises the possibility of measuring blood properties, e.g., erythrocyte aggregation and fibrinogen concentration, in situ. A number of theoretical approaches have been developed to analyze this phenomenon where in general ultrasound wavelength is much greater than the erythrocytes. These results show that the backscattering coefficient of blood, defined as power backscattered by a unit volume of blood per steradian per unit incident intensity, is proportional to variance of the erythrocyte number fluctuation and backscattering cross-section of a single erythrocyte. In this paper, we will show that similar results can also be obtained by taking a continuum approach.