Experimental Investigation of 3-D Blood Flow Velocity Measurement

Abstract

Ultrasonic pulse Doppler tomography is generally applied to noninvasive vascular measurement. The present method, however, measures only one component along the beam direction of a three-dimensional (3-D) velocity vector and provides useful information only if the beam direction in relation to the flow velocity vector is known. Images obtained by such systems are not only unsuitable for quantitative evaluation and but also prone to misinterpretation. On the other hand, in terms of real-time data acquisition achieved by scanning 3-D space, a two-dimensional (2-D) array probe is expected to become indispensable for future clinical applications. From this point of view, we have proposed a method of measuring a 3-D velocity vector using the 2-D array probe. In this paper, the principles of the proposed approach are introduced and experimental data obtained using a prototype system and the flow phantom are processed. Experimental results validate the usefulness of the method and its potential for practical use.