Blood velocity estimation using ultrasound and spectral iterative adaptive approaches

Abstract

This paper proposes two novel iterative data-adaptive spectral estimation techniques for blood velocity estimation using medical ultrasound scanners. The techniques make no assumption on the sampling pattern of the emissions or the depth samples, allowing for duplex mode transmissions where B-mode images are interleaved with the Doppler emissions. Furthermore, the techniques are shown, using both simplified and more realistic Field II simulations as well as in vivo data, to outperform current state-of-the-art techniques, allowing for accurate estimation of the blood velocity spectrum using only 30% of the transmissions, thereby allowing for the examination of two separate vessel regions while retaining an adequate updating rate of the B-mode images. In addition, the proposed methods also allow for more flexible transmission patterns, as well as exhibit fewer spectral artifacts as compared to earlier techniques.