1J-3 High Frequency Colour Flow Imaging of Mouse Tumours using Inter-Frame Clutter Filtering

We previously reported the use of inter-frame clutter filtering as a technique for increasing the frame rate of high frequency (HF) ultrasound (> 20 MHz) power Doppler (PD) imaging while maintaining sensitivity to slow flow (Needles et al., 2004). In the current study we have simulated and experimentally evaluated in vitro the performance of inter-frame filtering for colour flow (CF) imaging (ie. velocity estimation) over a large range of mean flow velocities (0.5-70.0 mm/s). We have also demonstrated the applicability of inter-frame filtering for PD and CF imaging of experimental tumours in mice and compared results with tumour data sets filtered with conventional single-frame filters