A feasability study of color flow doppler vectorization for automated blood flow monitoring

Abstract

An ongoing issue in vascular medicine is the measure of the blood flow. Catheterization remains the gold standard measurement method, although non-invasive techniques are an area of intense research. We hereby present a computational method for real-time measurement of the blood flow from color flow Doppler data, with a focus on simplicity and monitoring instead of diagnostics. We then analyze the performance of a proof-of-principle software implementation. We imagined a geometrical model geared towards blood flow computation from a color flow Doppler signal, and we developed a software implementation requiring only a standard diagnostic ultrasound device. Detection performance was evaluated by computing flow and its determinants (flow speed, vessel area, and ultrasound beam angle of incidence) on purposely designed synthetic and phantom-based arterial flow simulations. Flow was appropriately detected in all cases. Errors on synthetic images ranged from nonexistent to substantial depending on experimental conditions. Mean errors on measurements from our phantom flow simulation ranged from 1.2 to 40.2% for angle estimation, and from 3.2 to 25.3% for real-time flow estimation. This study is a proof of concept showing that accurate measurement can be done from automated color flow Doppler signal extraction, providing the industry the opportunity for further optimization using raw ultrasound data.

Quantitative assessment of carotid ultrasound diameter measurements in the operating room: a comparable analysis of long-axis versus rotated and tilted orientation

“…free-hand scanning (van Knippenberg et al 2020). These feasibility studies show that rotating and/or tilting the probe results in accurate blood flow measurements in vitro (Kitabatake et al 1990, Schorer et al 2017, Van Knippenberg et al 2020. As blood flow is computed based on diameter estimates, these results suggest that the diameter can in principle be accurately estimated from an elliptical-shaped cross-section.…”

“…Another way of assessing the cross-section of the carotid artery is by rotating and tilting the probe, a view that is easier to visualize and assess for sonographers (figure 1(C)). Aiming at increasing operator independency, previous articles describe dedicated algorithms to analyze cross-sectional carotid US images (Kitabatake et al 1990, Schorer et al 2017, van Knippenberg et al 2020. By computing the diameter over the minor axis of the elliptical-shaped cross-section of the vessel, the most recent algorithm allows for diameter estimation under any angle of rotation and tilt, i.e.…”

Respiratory Variation in Carotid Artery Peak Systolic Velocity Is Unable to Predict Fluid Responsiveness in Spontaneously Breathing Critically Ill Patients When Assessed by Novice Physician Sonologists

“…While this technology is not yet commercially available, proof-of-concept work by Schorer et al, demonstrate its feasibility, and preclinical testing by several groups are underway. 25 Our study has several limitations. First, carotid DVpeak was measured only once by 1 of the 3 novice physician sonologists before the administration of a fluid bolus.…”

Numerical model and finite element simulation of arterial blood flow profile reconstruction in a uniform magnetic field

“…The commonly used clinical methods include the ultrasonic Doppler method, the magnetic resonance imaging method, etc. However, the disadvantage of this method lies in the scattering and echo of ultrasonic signals in the propagation of the human body, which brings certain difficulties to the measurement [17]. MRI is an imaging technology that measures the velocity of liquid flow by using the phase change of the proton signal collected by magnetic resonance due to liquid flow [18].…”