Real-time blood motion imaging a 2D blood flow visualization technique

This paper describes the performance of a real-time implementation of blood motion imaging (BMI), a new method for 2D blood flow visualization. BMI is a qualitative technique for presenting blood flow in any direction, achieved by preservation, enhancement, and display of the speckle pattern originating from the blood flow signal. When played back at the overall modality frame rate, it is possible to visually track the blood flow speckle pattern from image to image in real-time. Two different implementations of real-time BMI have been made, extending the current color flow imaging (CFI) and power Doppler (PD) modalities by modulating the parametric flow images with the speckle pattern images. Initial investigations regarding the clinical usefulness of BMI has shown that it has potential in several areas of medicine. Still, more work has to be done to map the applications for which BMI can make a significant difference.