Characterization and comparison of a 2-, 4- and 8-MHz central venous catheter ultrasound probe for venous air emboli detection

This paper presents a concept for detection of venous air emboli inside the superior vena cava using a central venous catheter with integrated Doppler ultrasound transducer installed on the tip. Several Doppler probes each with a single insonation frequencies of 2 MHz, 4 MHz or 8 MHz are characterized and compared for usefulness in this scenario. During in vitro experiments using an artificial blood circulatory with blood mimicking fluid bubbles with defined volumes were injected and recorded as gaseous embolic events. The in vitro results of measured embolus-blood-ratio values (EBR) in respect to the air bubbles volumes and its echogenicity showed a good correlation with the simulation model of spherical cross section scattering of such air bubbles. It is shown that the probe design still needs some improvements using a 4 MHz insonation frequency to get a useable detection sensitivity in such scenario within vena cava superior. The results suggest that it is possible to estimate the air bubble volume corresponding to the EBR using such a catheter probe.