Estimation of velocity vectors with a finite element method for echocardiographic images

The authors develop a method of estimation of the field of vectors velocity to evaluate motion of the heart in view of an assistance with the medical diagnosis. In order to obtain the velocity components, the authors choose to solve the Horn and Schunck's (1981) functional with a finite element method (FEM). The method is first tested with synthetic motions and finally the results for echocardiographic images are compared with the results of the classical finite differences method (FDM).