What is Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging?

Ultrasound techniques currently used in echocardiography uses frame rates from 30-150 frames/s. This limits its temporal resolution for very short lived events, especially in pediatric and congenital heart disease with faster heart rates compared to adults [1]. While conventional ultrasound uses focused beam transmission, ultrafast ultrasound uses unfocused plane-wave ultrasound which can result in very high temporal resolution with frame rates up to 100 times faster [2]. Potential lower spatial resolution while using plane-wave is taken care of by using multiple plane-waves transmitted at slightly different angles with a technique called coherent compounding. We know that new born heart rate is at least double that of adults and higher temporal resolution provided by ultrafast ultrasound could be very useful. Smaller structures in newborn would benefit from improved spatial resolution. There is also a corresponding ultrafast Doppler imaging for analysis of faster blood flow in younger subjects.

References

1. Sachdeva R, Armstrong AK, Arnaout R, Grosse-Wortmann L, Han BK, Mertens L, Moore RA, Olivieri LJ, Parthiban A, Powell AJ. Novel Techniques in Imaging Congenital Heart Disease: JACC Scientific Statement. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2024 Jan 2;83(1):63-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2023.10.025. PMID: 38171712.
2. Villemain O, Baranger J, Friedberg MK, Papadacci C, Dizeux A, Messas E, Tanter M, Pernot M, Mertens L. Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging in Pediatric and Adult Cardiology: Techniques, Applications, and Perspectives. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2020 Aug;13(8):1771-1791. doi: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2019.09.019. Epub 2019 Nov 13. PMID: 31734211.