High-speed measurement of two-dimensional displacement of myocardium using element RF data of ultrasonic probe

Abstract

Improving the accuracy of heart wall motion measurement is essential to realise better cardiac function evaluation. This paper proposed a two-dimensional (2D) displacement estimation method with a high temporal resolution using the 2D complex cross-correlation of element RF signals of an ultrasonic probe between frames returned from the target scatterers. The application of the proposed method to the phantom displacement confirmed its principle. The estimated 2D displacement of the phantom was consistent with the set displacement. Subsequently, the method was applied to two healthy subjects to measure the 2D displacement of the interventricular septum during one cardiac cycle. Consequently, during systole and diastole, the movement of the myocardium was measured, and the results were validated.