Real-time strain velocity imaging (SVI)

The viability of a segment of the cardiac muscle is related to the amount and temporal behavior of the strain that is performed by, or is imposed on the muscle segment. The vessel wall thickening is commonly used as an indication of the strain. In this paper a method to estimate the strain velocity directly from the ultrasound RF data is presented. The component of the strain velocity along an ultrasound beam can be found as the spatial gradient of the tissue velocity over a small distance along the beam. The result is presented as a color overlaid on the ultrasound image. Strain velocity images generated by post processing of ultrasound RF data recorded with the Vingmed Sound System Five ultrasound scanner, as well as results from a real time implementation on the scanner are presented