Clutter filtering influence on blood velocity estimation using speckle tracking.

Blood speckle tracking has shown potential for solving the angle-dependency limitation in color flow imaging. However, as clutter filtering is still Doppler-based, flow velocities at near-perpendicular beam-to-flow angles can be severely attenuated. It is shown that the clutter filter also alters the speckle appearance through a decrease in the lateral imaging bandwidth, leading to poorer lateral resolution and thus tracking performance.

Optimal velocity estimation in ultrasound color flow imaging in presence of clutter.

In color flow imaging (CFI), the rejection of tissue clutter signal is treated separately from blood velocity estimation by high-pass filtering the received Doppler signal. The complete suppression of clutter is then difficult to achieve without affecting the subsequent velocity estimates. In this work, a different approach to velocity estimation is investigated, based on a statistical model of the signal from both clutter and blood.

Real-time adaptive clutter rejection filtering in color flow imaging using power method iterations.

We propose a new algorithm for real-time, adaptive-clutter-rejection filtering in ultrasound color flow imaging (CFI) and related techniques. The algorithm is based on regression filtering using eigenvectors of the signal correlation matrix as a basis for representing clutter, a method that previously has been considered too computationally demanding for real-time processing in general CFI applications. The data acquisition and processing scheme introduced allows for a more localized sampling of the clutter statistics and, therefore, an improved clutter attenuation for lower filter orders.

Blood flow imaging--A new real-time, 2-D flow imaging technique.

This paper presents a new method for the visualization of two-dimensional (2-D) blood flow in ultrasound imaging systems called blood flow imaging (BFI). Conventional methods of color flow imaging (CFI) and power Doppler (PD) techniques are limited as the velocity component transversal to the ultrasound beam cannot be estimated from the received Doppler signal. The BFI relies on the preservation and display of the speckle pattern originating from the blood flow scatterer signal, and it provides qualitative information of the blood flow distribution and movement in any direction of the image.

Clutter filters adapted to tissue motion in ultrasound color flow imaging.

The quality of ultrasound color flow images is highly dependent on sufficient attenuation of the clutter signals originating from stationary and slowly moving tissue. Without sufficient clutter rejection, the detection of low velocity blood flow will be poor, and the velocity estimates will have a large bias. In some situations, e.