Coronary artery flow imaging with an intraluminal array

The rate of blood speckle decorrelation for scatterers moving through the imaging plane of an intravascular system can be used to estimate flow velocity. The authors have tested this hypothesis with an intraluminal array imaging system appropriate for coronary artery applications. A pig model was investigated with a 64 element, 20 MHz imaging system. Estimates of the relative blood speed made by measuring temporal decorrelation in a FIR filter bank were used to demonstrate real-time color flow imaging.