Simultaneous imaging of wall motion and flow velocity in the hearts and vessels of mice in vivo: A feasibility study

The objective of this paper is to determine the feasibility of simultaneous imaging of cardiovascular wall motion and blood flow in mice in vivo. Ultrasound radio frequency (RF) of normal (n=6) and infarcted (n=5) murine left ventricles, normal (n=5) and aneurysmal (n=4) murine abdominal aortas were acquired at a high frame of 8 kHz. Both axial wall motion and blood flow velocity were simultaneously estimated using a RF-based speckle tracking method. Wall velocity and flow velocity in the normal heart were found synchronized in diastole, whereas the wall velocity occurs earlier than the flow velocity in the infarcted heart. Wall motion and flow velocity were also more synchronized in the normal than in the aneurysmal aorta. Simultaneous imaging of wall motion and flow velocity may thus provide additional important information for the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease as well as essential parameters for biomechanical modeling.