Color Doppler spatial resolution measurements with an oscillating thin film test object

The spatial resolution and sensitivity of a typical color Doppler scanner can be difficult to assess in an efficient and comprehensive manner. To address this issue, we have developed a novel phantom comprised of an oscillating thin film with precisely deposited subresolvable “digital scatterers” that can be arranged in patterns commonly used in the field of imaging science for system performance evaluation. This provides a highly definable Doppler shift stimulus in terms of both spatial and temporal content. Spatial resolution measurements were obtained from commercially available clinical color Doppler scanning systems utilizing this Doppler thin film phantom with simple vertical and horizontal line patterns. Construction of the Doppler phantom and measurements from the Color Flow Doppler images are discussed