Spectral Velocity Estimation using the Autocorrelation Function and Sparse data Sequences

Publication: Research - peer-reviewArticle in proceedings – Annual report year: 2005

View graph of relations

Ultrasound scanners can be used for displaying the distribution of velocities in blood vessels by finding the power spectrum of the received signal. It is desired to show a B-mode image for orientation and data for this has to be acquired interleaved with the flow data. Techniques for maintaining both the B-mode frame rate, and at the same time have the highest possible $f_{prf}$ only limited by the depth of investigation, are, thus, of great interest. The power spectrum can be calculated from the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation function $R_r(k)$. The lag $k$ corresponds to the difference in pulse number, so that for lag $k$ data from emission $i$ is correlated with $i+k$. It is possible to calculate $R_r(k)$ for a sparse set of emissions, as long as all combinations of emissions cover all lags in $R_r(k)$. A sparse set of emissions interleaved with B-mode emissions can, therefore, be used for estimating $R_r(k)$. The approach has been investigated using Field II simulation of the flow in the carotid and femoral arteries. A 5 MHz linear array transducer with 128 elements, a pitch of $\lambda$ and an element height of 5 mm was simulated. The autocorrelation was calculated from the sparse sequence and averaged over a pulse length. The 1:2 sequence using 2 flow emission for one b-Mode emissions showed a nearly indistinguishable spectrum compared to a Fourier spectrum calculated on the full data. The sparser sequences give a higher noise in the spectrum proportional to the sparseness of the sequence. The audio signal has also been synthesized from the autocorrelation data by passing white, Gaussian noise through a filter designed from the power spectrum of the autocorrelation function. The results show that both the full velocity range can be maintained at the same time as a B-mode image is shown in real time, where the trade-off between B-mode frame rate and spectral accuracy can be selected.
Original languageEnglish
Title2005 IEEE Ultrasonics symposium
Volume1-4
PublisherIEEE
Publication date2005
Pages141-145
ISBN (print)0-7803-9382-1
DOIs
StatePublished

Conference

Conference2005 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium
CountryNetherlands
CityRotterdam
Period18-09-0521-09-05
Internet addresshttp://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=10674
NameI E E E International Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings
ISSN (Print)1051-0117
CitationsWeb of Science® Times Cited: No match on DOI

Keywords

  • Medical, Velocity estimation, Ultrasound

ID: 5519202