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Updated: Nov 12, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancing Neonatal Cardiac Diagnostics with Echocardiography-Derived Blood Speckle Imaging
Published on: December 22, 2023
Intracardiac flow visualization using high-frame rate blood speckle tracking echocardiography: Illustrations from
Massimiliano Cantinotti1,2, Pietro Marchese1,3, Martin Koestenberger4
1Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Stabilimento Ospedaliero di Massa Ospedale del Cuore G Pasquinucci, Massa, Toscana, USA.
Insights
High-frame rate blood speckle tracking (BST) echocardiography is a novel, fast, and feasible imaging tool. This technique enhances understanding of complex congenital heart disease (CHD) physiology in infants by visualizing anomalous blood flow.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Imaging
- Pediatric Cardiology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Congenital heart disease (CHD) presents complex physiological challenges in infants.
- Accurate visualization of blood flow is crucial for diagnosing and managing CHD.
- Conventional echocardiography methods may have limitations in depicting intricate hemodynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the application and feasibility of high-frame rate blood speckle tracking (BST) echocardiography.
- To assess BST's ability to provide complementary information to standard echocardiography in infants with CHD.
- To explore BST's utility in enhancing the understanding of anomalous blood trajectories and vortex formation in pediatric CHD.
Main Methods:
- Application of novel high-frame rate blood speckle tracking (BST) echocardiography.
- Utilized in a series of infants diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD).
- Feasibility, reproducibility, and speed of the BST technique were assessed.
Main Results:
- High-frame rate BST echocardiography demonstrated high feasibility, reproducibility, and speed.
- BST provided complementary hemodynamic data beyond conventional color-Doppler.
- Enhanced visualization of anomalous blood trajectories, including shunt direction, regurgitant volumes, and stenotic jets.
- Improved understanding of vortex formation in complex CHD.
Conclusions:
- High-frame rate BST echocardiography is a promising new imaging modality for pediatric cardiology.
- The technique offers valuable insights into complex CHD physiology.
- BST may aid in deeper understanding and management of infants with congenital heart disease.
Abstract:
We report applications of novel high-frame rate blood speckle tracking (BST) echocardiography in a series of infants with congenital heart disease (CHD). BST echocardiography was highly feasible, reproducible, and fast. High-frame rate BST provided complimentary information to conventional color-Doppler data enhancing the visualization and understanding of anomalous blood trajectories (eg, shunt direction, regurgitant volumes, and stenotic jets) and vortex formation. High-frame rate BST echocardiography is a new, promising imaging tool that may be helpful for deeper understanding of complex CHD physiology.
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