Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for low flow rate contrast agents

摘要

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method are presented to determine low rates of blood flow using contrast agents. Pairs of differently modulated pulses are transmitted in several beam directions to acquire echoes which can be combined to separate harmonic frequencies by pulse inversion. The pulses of each pair are transmitted in rapid succession to minimize motional artifacts. The transmission in the different beam directions is time-interleaved, resulting in the sampling of each beam direction over a long ensemble time for the detection of low rates of flow.