Simultaneous quantification of flow and tissue velocities based on multi-angle plane wave imaging with an extended velocity range

A quantitative 2D modality for flow and tissue imaging is investigated, using multi-angle plane wave acquisition. Simulations of flow in a carotid artery bifurcation was used to assess the accuracy of the technique. The acquisition scheme was implemented on a research scanner, demonstrating the potential also in vivo. After clutter rejection, reduction in standard deviation from 14 cm/s to 6 cm/s was found for the lateral (v
_x
) component when the ensemble size was increased from 12 to 50, whereas the axial (v
_z
) component had a reduction in standard deviation from 4.4 cm/s to 2.5 cm/s. Simulations of a slowly rotating phantom (v
_max
3.14 cm/s) also gave promising results for imaging of slowly moving tissue, giving correlation coefficients of 0.95 and 0.99 for the x- and z-components respectively.