NOVEL INSTRUMENT FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION ULTRASOUND FLOW IMAGING

In multigate systems employed in Doppler flow-imaging equipment, the v elocities of targets located at different ranges along the ultrasound beam axis are simultaneously detected. Typically, to reduce the comput ation efforts, this processing is aimed at extracting a single paramet er (e.g., the mean velocity) from each signal. In this article, a nove l ultrasound multigate instrument is presented capable of providing a detailed analysis of Doppler signals originated from 64 different rang e cells. By means of a dedicated high-speed fast-fourier transform pro cessor, these signals are transformed into the frequency domain withou t loss of information. The implementation of the new multigate system is described here, and the pieces of information which it can provide are discussed. Significant results obtained in vitro and in vivo demon strate that the new instrument is capable of accurately reproducing th e actual velocity profiles of the interrogated flow. (C) 1997 John Wil ey & Sons, Inc.