MEASUREMENT OF VOLUMETRIC FLOW WITH NO ANGLE CORRECTION USING MULTIPLANAR PULSED DOPPLER ULTRASOUND

In this paper we show that by scanning at points on the surface of a s phere that the normal angle correction used in pulsed Doppler flow mea surements is no longer necessary. Thus, it is possible to measure thre e-dimensional (3-D) how using multiplanar ultrasound even though we on ly get one-dimensional (1-D) velocity information from pulsed Doppler ultrasound. The technique handles the three basic problems in flow mea surements using ultrasound Doppler: The variations of the cross-sectio nal area, the time dependent changes in the velocity field, and the de pendency of the angle of insonation. The technique is tested in a how phantom using different angles of insonation to validate the angle ind ependence of this new technique. Using six different angles of insonat ion in the range 0 degrees to 69 degrees with flowrates in the range o f 0-170 ml/s a linear dependence was found to be: measured (color Dopp ler) = 0.98 real flow (reference) +1.36 ml/s, with a 95% confidence in terval of +/-13.9 ml/s.