Quantitative assessment of flow velocity through transverse dual-beam analysis

Doppler ultrasound investigations are typically limited to detect only the axial blood velocity component, as they cannot directly estimate the flow direction. To overcome this limitation, we have recently proposed an original dual-beam method characterized by the transverse orientation of one of the two beams to the flow. In this paper, the performance of such a technique is tested through over 300 in vitro experiments made by using a set of 6 different transducers. In steady flow conditions, the velocity measurement errors featured a Gaussian distribution with mean of -1.35% (CI 95%: 0.89% to 1.82%) and 3.7% standard deviation. In pulsatile flow conditions, the coefficient of variation was evaluated below 3.7% (intra-session) and 8.1% (inter-session).