In vitro & in vivo 4D ultrafast Doppler imaging using a large aperture row column adressed transducer

Abstract

Ultrafast 3D Doppler imaging can provide volumetric high frame rate and high resolution mapping of the vascular anatomy and function [1]. Current approach relies on the use of matrix arrays connected to high count of electronics channel which remain complex and costly. Row Column Addressed (RCA) approaches have been proposed as a low complexity alternative to matrix probe for imaging of blood flows [2]. Orthogonal Plane Wave (OPW) compounding is a dedicated beamforming strategy introduced recently [3] to perform full 3D ultrafast volumetric imaging using RCA. In this work we apply this technique on a new large aperture RCA probe and validate experimentally 3D blood flow imaging on in vitro flow phantoms and on in vivo human carotid artery.