Ultrasound systems for blood velocity estimation

Medical ultrasound scanners can be used both for displayinggray-scale images of the anatomy and for visualizing theblood flow dynamically in the body.The systems can interrogate the flow at a single position in the bodyand there find the velocity distribution over time. They can also show adynamic color image of velocity at up to 20 to 60 frames a second. Both measurements are performedby repeatedly pulsing in the same direction and then usethe correlation from pulse to pulse to determine the velocity.The paper gives a simple model for the interactionbetween the ultrasound and the moving blood. The calculation of the velocity distribution is then explainedalong with the different physical effects influencing the estimation.The estimation of mean velocities using auto- andcross-correlation for color flow mapping is also described.