Fast volumetric cardiac ultrasound: A comparison of different multi-line transmit setups by computer simulation

Current 3D cardiac ultrasound systems suffer from relatively low spatiotemporal resolution limiting their applicability in clinical practice. To overcome this limitation, we have previously demonstrated in both 2D and 3D, that a proper multi-line transmit (MLT) implementation can be used to increase frame rate while preserving image quality. However, to date a direct comparison of different MLT implementations for 3D imaging has not been performed. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the optimal trade-off between the amount of transmit parallelization of a MLT system and its corresponding SNR. Hereto, the image quality of several MLT systems was estimated by quantifying their transmit crosstalk using computer simulation. A SNR of -30dB was defined as a cut-off for an acceptable cross-talk level. The results showed that for the setups tested, a 16MLT combined with 4MLA (i.e. multi-line acquisition) system using a Tukey (α=0.5) apodization gave the highest gain in frame rate while keeping the expected B-mode image quality acceptable.