Regional wall motion tracking system for high-frame rate ultrasound echocardiography

The accurate evaluation of regional wall motion is essential for the diagnosis of cardiac function or pathogenesis of cardiac disease. We tried to quantify 2D wall motion through the cardiac cycle using a high-frame rate digital image of ultrasound echocardiography. The problem of basic 2D correlation method was studied. To overcome this problem, we incorporated three other indices for continuation of motion, reference of initial image, and larger ROI. Then, the performance of tracking regional wall motion is noticeably improved. It's demonstrated that the accuracy of automatic quantification or detection of abnormal wall motion is acceptable in clinical settings and research situations. Especially, it's effective in the detection and the degree of the infarction.