High-frame-rate color flow imaging with enhanced spatial resolution in virtual real-time

The transmission of plane waves and parallel beamforming have been successfully used to improve the performance of Colour Flow Mapping (CFM) systems, as they allow the exploitation of effective wall filters in continuous time and autocorrelations with very long ensemble lengths. However, although hundreds of colour maps could be produced in realtime, the computing power requirements still compromise either the frame-rate, the region of interest (ROI) size or the spatial resolution. In this paper, the combination of real-time PW CFM @ 250 frames/sec with the virtual real-time modality of ULA-OP 256, is shown ideal for the investigation of rapidly changing flow at improved spatial resolution and extended ROI size.