On the usefulness of singular value decomposition-ARMA models in Doppler ultrasound

The singular value decomposition (SVD) autoregressive moving average, (ARMA) procedure is applied to computer-generated synthetic Doppler signals as well as in-vivo Doppler data recorded in the carotid artery. Two essential algorithmic parameters (the initially proposed model order and the number of overdetermined equations used) prove difficult to choose. The resulting spectra are very dependent on these two parameters. For the simulated data models orders of (3, 3) provide good results. However, when applying the SVD-ARMA algorithm to in-vivo Doppler signals no single set of model orders was capable of producing consistent spectral estimates throughout the cardiac cycle. Altering the model orders also necessitates the selection of new algorithmic parameters. Hence, the SVD-ARMA approach cannot be considered suitable as a spectral estimation technique, for real-time Doppler ultrasound systems.