TY - GEN

T1 - Coded ultrasound for blood flow estimation using subband processing

AU - Gran, Fredrik

AU - Udesen, Jesper

AU - Nielsen, Michael Bachmann

AU - Jensen, Jørgen Arendt

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - This paper further investigates the use of coded excitation for blood flow estimation in medical ultrasound. Traditional autocorrelation estimators use narrow-band excitation signals to provide sufficient signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and velocity estimation performance. In this paper, broadband coded signals are used to increase SNR, followed by sub-band processing. The received broadband signal, is filtered using a set of narrow-band filters. Estimating the velocity in each of the bands and averaging the results yields better performance compared to what would be possible when transmitting a narrow-band pulse directly. Also, the spatial resolution of the narrow-band pulse would be too poor for brightness-mode (B-mode) imaging and additional transmissions would be required to update the B-mode image. In the described approach, there is no need for additional transmissions, because the excitation signal is broadband and has good spatial resolution after pulse compression. Two different coding schemes are used in this paper, Barker codes and Golay codes. The performance of the codes for velocity estimation is compared to a conventional approach transmitting a narrow-band pulse. The study was carried out using an experimental ultrasound scanner and a commercial linear array 7 MHz transducer. A circulating flow rig was scanned with a beam-to-flow angle of 60°. The flow in the rig was laminar and had a parabolic flow-profile with a peak velocity of 0.09 m/s. The mean relative standard deviation of the reference method using an eight cycle excitation pulse at 7 MHz was 0.544% compared to the peak velocity in the rig. Two Barker codes were tested with a length of 5 and 13 bits, respectively. The corresponding mean relative standard deviations were 0.367% and 0.310%, respectively. For the Golay coded experiment, two 8 bit codes were used, and the mean relative standard deviation was 0.335%.

AB - This paper further investigates the use of coded excitation for blood flow estimation in medical ultrasound. Traditional autocorrelation estimators use narrow-band excitation signals to provide sufficient signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and velocity estimation performance. In this paper, broadband coded signals are used to increase SNR, followed by sub-band processing. The received broadband signal, is filtered using a set of narrow-band filters. Estimating the velocity in each of the bands and averaging the results yields better performance compared to what would be possible when transmitting a narrow-band pulse directly. Also, the spatial resolution of the narrow-band pulse would be too poor for brightness-mode (B-mode) imaging and additional transmissions would be required to update the B-mode image. In the described approach, there is no need for additional transmissions, because the excitation signal is broadband and has good spatial resolution after pulse compression. Two different coding schemes are used in this paper, Barker codes and Golay codes. The performance of the codes for velocity estimation is compared to a conventional approach transmitting a narrow-band pulse. The study was carried out using an experimental ultrasound scanner and a commercial linear array 7 MHz transducer. A circulating flow rig was scanned with a beam-to-flow angle of 60°. The flow in the rig was laminar and had a parabolic flow-profile with a peak velocity of 0.09 m/s. The mean relative standard deviation of the reference method using an eight cycle excitation pulse at 7 MHz was 0.544% compared to the peak velocity in the rig. Two Barker codes were tested with a length of 5 and 13 bits, respectively. The corresponding mean relative standard deviations were 0.367% and 0.310%, respectively. For the Golay coded experiment, two 8 bit codes were used, and the mean relative standard deviation was 0.335%.

KW - Blood velocity estimation

KW - Medical ultrasound

KW - Sub-band processing

KW - Temporal encoding

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=35148875680&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1117/12.703345

DO - 10.1117/12.703345

M3 - Article in proceedings

AN - SCOPUS:35148875680

SN - 081946631X

SN - 9780819466310

T3 - Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE

BT - Medical Imaging 2007

T2 - Medical Imaging 2007: Ultrasonic Imaging and Signal Processing

Y2 - 18 February 2007 through 19 February 2007

ER -