Plane wave transverse oscillation (PWTO): An ultra-fast transverse oscillation imaging mode performed in the Fourier domain for 2D motion estimation of the carotid artery

In this paper, we propose the combination of fast plane wave imaging and transverse oscillation techniques (TO) in medical ultrasound for 2D vector motion estimation. Although transverse oscillation imaging has been originally developed as a mean to estimate blood vector flow, it has also been used for tissue motion in elastography or echocardiography. TO imaging relies on dynamic focusing along with specific apodization functions in receive. We propose here to adapt the TO technique to ultrafast plane wave imaging in order to increase the frame rate. TO plane wave imaging was generated using compounding of steered TO plane-wave-derived images in the Fourier domain. A quantitative evaluation of the proposed scheme was performed using Field II simulations. TO plane wave imaging has been also implemented on the Ula-Op research platform and we evaluated the feasibility to estimate 2D wall motion in the common carotid artery.