New functional imaging options with echocardiography based on myocardial velocity curves

This article describes an off-line software for extended analysis of tissue myocardial ultrasound Doppler information acquired at high temporal resolution. The software contains four main modalities for improved objective analysis of myocardial wall motion. (1) The possibility to extract velocity curves from multiple points in any pixel. (2) Color-coded 2-D images from mathematically processed velocity curves. (3) The possibility to analyze directional and velocity changes along any pre-defined line or curve (C-line) and then present these in analogue to the M-Mode (C-Mode). (4) Strain rate imaging (SRI)-by calculating the relative movement inside the tissue as distances between discrete points information about internal velocities i.e. compression or contraction and expansion, can be presented in a color-coded image both in 2D or C-mode.