Systems and methods for microvessel ultrasound imaging

A method for generating an image that depicts microvessels in a subject using an ultrasound system, the steps of the method comprising:

• (a) accessing with a computer system, ultrasound data acquired from a subject with an ultrasound system, wherein the ultrasound data comprise image frames obtained at a plurality of different time points;
• (b) generating spatiotemporal matrix data with the computer system by reformatting the ultrasound data as a Casorati matrix;
• (c) generating clutter-filtered Doppler ensemble (CFDE) data with the computer system by inputting the spatiotemporal matrix data to a clutter filter, generating output as the CFDE data;
• (d) generating with the computer system, spatiotemporal correlation data by inputting the CFDE data to a spatiotemporal correlation filter, generating output as the spatiotemporal correlation data;
• (e) generating a synthetic noise image with the computer system based on statistics computed from the spatiotemporal correlation data;
• (f) estimating background noise field data from the synthetic noise image using the computer system;
• (g) generating a power Doppler image from the CFDE data using the computer system;
• and
• (h) generating a noise-suppressed power Doppler image with the computer system by normalizing the power Doppler image using the background noise field data, wherein the noise-suppressed power Doppler image depicts microvessels in the subject.