MATLAB for teaching Doppler ultrasound blood flow signal analysis to biomedical engineering students

Abstract

Biomedical signal processing and analysis is afield of great importance in current medical practice. MATLAB is the most commonly used software tool for biomedical signal processing, visualization, editing, etc. This paper presents an initiative to leach Doppler ultrasound blood flow signal analysis to biomedical engineering students. The approach was based on illustrative applications that highlight the performance characteristics of the signal processing methods (classical, model-based, eigenvector and time-frequency methods). Following a brief description of the signal processing methods, applications of the methods to the Doppler signals obtained from the internal carotid artery and ophthalmic artery were done by means of a series of MATLAB functions. The functions involved in signal processing and wavelet toolboxes of MATLAB can be used to analyse the signal under study. The author suggests that the use of MATLAB exercises will assist students in gaining a better understanding of the various signal processing methods in blood flow investigations.