Estimation of blood perfusion using ultrasound

Ways to measure blood perfusion using ultrasound techniques such as continuous-wave Doppler, pulsed Doppler, colour Doppler and power Doppler will be reviewed. From a certain standpoint, blood perfusion may be defined as the difference between arterial inflow and arterial outflow from a considered volume, i.e. capillary flow. The low velocities and small blood volumes involved make the signal-to-noise ratio, dynamic range and frequency resolution critical factors in the detection system. Another limiting factor is tissue motion which obscures the blood signal. Perfusion may still under certain conditions be estimated with the first moment of the Doppler power spectrum, as obtained with any Doppler ultrasound method. Modern flow mapping techniques also make it possible to estimate perfusion by counting the number of pixels that indicate flow, but low flow velocities cannot be included in the estimate. Future high-frequency systems may, however, provide very detailed images of minute flow distributions in superficial layers. Contrast agents are widely used today to enhance the blood signal, and a technique named harmonic imaging can suppress movement artefacts from surrounding tissue. Transient signals from disrupting contrast agent particles in an ultrasound field can potentially be used for perfusion quantification. Future developments to extract the blood flow signal from its noisy environment, aside from contrast agents, may be multiple sample volumes, frequency compounding and/or improved signal processing. The lack of an adequate perfusion phantom for verification of measurements of microcirculatory flow becomes, however, more apparent with improved detectability of slow flows.