Efficient design of ultrasound true-velocity flow mapping

Abstract

The authors describe the general theory of the classical Doppler technique for flow mapping and show that its main assumptions do not generally hold for ultrasound imaging. They then develop a generalized model for frequency-domain flow mapping in practical ultrasound imaging situations. Using this model, the authors show that it is possible to compute the true velocity from single-aperture configurations. They discuss improving the resolution and velocity estimation accuracies and propose a novel approach based on a generalization of the radar ambiguity function model. They also consider the same problems for time-domain techniques. They propose a generalization of the correlation technique that takes into account the ultrasound field effect, and show that it is theoretically possible to obtain true-velocity flow maps from single-aperture configurations. Finally, the authors discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of both frequency-domain and time-domain techniques.