Blood velocity estimation using compressed sensing

Duplex ultrasonography is a mode of medical ultrasonography that allows to visualize at the same time the inner structure of the body (B-mode), and the blood flow at a particular point in the body (Doppler mode). This mode requires a strategy for alternating B-mode and flow emissions. Traditional strategies either halve the maximum measurable velocity or introduce gaps in in the flow data. Our approach is based on randomly alternating both types of emission. Randomly sampled data is very favorable for compressed sensing (CS), which we use to reconstruct the Doppler signal segment by segment. This paper investigates how to design the cutting of the Doppler data into segments to ensure optimal quality, real-time reconstruction. By spending 60% of the time on velocity data acquisition at a pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz, our method yields an average SNR of 18 dB and readable spectrograms.