Blood flow visualization with real time high speed ultrasound

A new method of acquiring and displaying high speed ultrasound images has been developed. To extract flow information from the low intensity reflections of moving blood in these high frame rate images, difference imaging was found to be a particularly applicable visualization technique. Difference imaging has been shown to suppress stationary targets while increasing the contrast of the moving blood. This time domain technique has been used to visualize flow in both the left and right ventricle of the heart as well as in peripheral vasculature such as the carotid artery and hepatic blood vessels.