In Vivo Dynamic Coronary Arteries Blood Flow Imaging Based on Multi-Cycle Phase Clustering Ultrafast Ultrasound

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Biomedical Ultrasound Engineering

Background:

• Traditional Doppler echocardiography faces challenges with signal aliasing between myocardial tissue and blood flow.
• Low-velocity flows, such as coronary artery blood flow, are particularly difficult to detect due to overlapping signals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for suppressing tissue clutter in cardiac ultrasound imaging.
• To achieve clear visualization of dynamic cardiac blood flow, including coronary and chamber flows.
• To enhance the spatial resolution of cardiovascular flow imaging.

Main Methods:

• A novel multi-cycle phase clustering method was developed for tissue clutter suppression.
• The new method abandons traditional Doppler-based imaging.
• Integration with super-resolution ultrasound reconstruction techniques was employed.

Main Results:

• Successfully extracted dynamic cardiac blood flow signals.
• Achieved clear visualization of coronary artery flow and cardiac chamber flow throughout the cardiac cycle.
• Enhanced spatial resolution in cardiac blood flow imaging was demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The developed technique offers a paradigm shift from traditional Doppler imaging.
• This novel in vivo approach provides high spatio-temporal resolution, safety, and clinical accessibility.
• The method shows significant potential for advancing the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases.