Automated quantification of diastolic filling parameters from cardiac Doppler ultrasound

In order to extract quantitative physiological information from cardiac Doppler velocity data, precise contour determination is required. It has previously been shown that computation of parametrized diastolic filling (PDF) parameters from the clinical diastolic Doppler velocity profile (DVP) can be accomplished by manual comparison of a PDF model predicted to clinically recorded DVP. However, visual DVP contour estimation as well as comparison of PDF model prediction to the DVP requires hand tracing and is prone to interobserver variations. Using the cardiac Doppler ultrasound acoustic signal, a computer based method of DVP computation is developed. When applied to the E-wave of the human diastolic transmitral DVP, the method allows automated computation of PDF parameters, equivalent to automated solution of the inverse problem of diastole