Method and system for ultrasound blood flow imaging and volume flow calculations

A method for estimating blood flow in a blood vessel, comprising:

• acquiring velocity information from a blood vessel by moving a one dimensional array transducer to different orientations relative to a blood vessel;
• projecting the velocity information acquired at each orientation onto a straight line to produce a velocity profile;
• estimating the flow rate from the projected velocity information in combination with velocity information acquired from a different orientation to produce an updated estimate of flow rate;
• and
• displaying the flow rate estimate.

A method of determining the volume flow rate of blood flowing through a blood vessel, comprising:

• using a two-dimensional array transducer to obtain data corresponding to a three-dimensional Doppler image of blood flow velocity in a relatively narrow sample volume intersecting the entire lumen of the blood vessel, the sample volume being a fixed distance from the transducer;
• processing the data corresponding to the three-dimensional Doppler image to provide data corresponding to a projection of the three-dimensional Doppler image onto a plane thereby providing two-dimensional Doppler image data corresponding to a three-dimensional Doppler image of blood flow velocity in a surface;
• and
• processing the two-dimensional Doppler image data to integrate the velocity of blood flow shown in the two-dimensional Doppler image across an area of blood flow to determine the blood volume flow rate.

A system for displaying a volume flow image of blood flowing through a blood vessel, the system comprising:

• a scanhead having a plurality of transducer elements;
• a beamformer coupled to receive the echo signals from the ultrasonic transducer and to generate output signals corresponding thereto;
• a Doppler processor coupled to the beamformer, the Doppler processor being operable to generate data corresponding to an image of the velocity of blood flowing through the blood vessel in a nonplanar surface intersected by the blood vessel;
• an image processor coupled to the Doppler processor, the image processor being operable to generate 2-D Doppler image data corresponding to the projection of the blood flow velocity in the nonplanar surface onto a plane;
• and
• a display displaying an image corresponding to the 2-D Doppler image data.