A feasibility study for measuring accurate tendon displacements using an audio-based Fourier analysis of pulsed-wave Doppler ultrasound signals.

The accuracy of Pulsed-Wave Doppler Ultrasound displacement measurements of a slow moving "tendon-like" string was investigated in this study. This was accomplished by estimating string displacements using an audio-based Fourier analysis of a Pulsed-Wave Doppler signal from a commercial ultrasound scanner. Our feasibility study showed that the proposed technique is much more accurate at estimating the actual string displacement in comparison to the scanner's onboard software. Furthermore, this study also shows that a real-time Doppler data acquisition from an ultrasound scanner is possible for the ultimate purpose of real-time biological tendon displacement monitoring.