DocumentCode
782437
Title
Ultrasound three-dimensional velocity measurements by feature tracking
Author
Bashford, Gregory R. ; Von Ramm, Olaf T.
Author_Institution
Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Duke Univ., Durham, NC, USA
Volume
43
Issue
3
fYear
1996
fDate
5/1/1996 12:00:00 AM
Firstpage
376
Lastpage
384
Abstract
This article describes a new angle-independent method suitable for three-dimensional (3-D) blood flow velocity measurement that tracks features of the ultrasonic speckle produced by a pulse echo system. In this method, a feature is identified and followed over time to detect motion. Other blood flow velocity measurement methods typically estimate velocity using one- (1-D) or two-dimensional (2-D) spatial and time information. Speckle decorrelation due to motion in the elevation dimension may hinder this estimate of the true 3-D blood flow velocity vector. Feature tracking is a 3-D method with the ability to measure the true blood velocity vector rather than a projection onto a line or plane. Off-line experiments using a tissue phantom and a real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging system have shown that the local maximum detected value of the speckle signal may be identified and tracked for measuring velocities typical of human blood flow. The limitations of feature tracking, including the uncertainty of the peak location and the duration of the local maxima are discussed. An analysis of the expected error using this method is given.
Keywords
biomedical ultrasonics; feature extraction; haemodynamics; medical image processing; motion estimation; speckle; ultrasonic velocity measurement; angle-independent method; blood flow velocity measurement; elevation dimension; feature tracking; human blood flow; local maxima duration; off-line experiments; peak location uncertainty; pulse echo system; real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging system; tissue phantom; true blood velocity vector; ultrasonic speckle; ultrasound three-dimensional velocity measurements; Blood flow; Decorrelation; Motion detection; Motion estimation; Pulse measurements; Speckle; Two dimensional displays; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonic variables measurement; Velocity measurement;
fLanguage
English
Journal_Title
Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher
ieee
ISSN
0885-3010
Type
jour
DOI
10.1109/58.489394
Filename
489394
Link To Document