Experimental velocity profiles and volumetric flow via two-dimensional speckle tracking

The performance of a two-dimensional speckle tracking system in measuring in vitro laminar flow is evaluated. The system uses a pattern matching algorithm to track subresolution-sized speckle regions between successive ultrasonic 2D pulse-echo acquisitions in order to determine both the axial and the lateral components of velocity. In this study, multiple 2D vector velocity maps were acquired in real time using a calibrated laminar flow phantom, and then statistically analyzed off-line. At a 90° transducer angle, volumetric flow rates computed from measured velocity profiles exhibited excellent linearity ( R 2 > 0.99), with a mean error of −6.1%, over the range 5–30 mL/s. At 105° and 120°, experimental volume flow rates also agreed well with actual rates, although measured velocity profiles appeared more irregular with decreasing Doppler angles. Velocity profiles estimated using sampled radio-frequency data rather than envelope-detected data were inconsistent due to an insufficient sampling rate and the quantization of the velocity grid. Results indicate that excellent flow velocity and volume rate estimates can be obtained from vector velocity measurements along a single line of sight, without a priori knowledge of the flow direction, at transducer angles near 90° where Doppler instruments are prone to large errors.