High sensitivity brain angiography using Ultrafast Doppler

A new mode called Ultrafast Doppler based on the coherent compounding of ultrafast ultrasonic images is proposed for brain angiography. It is proved both theoretically and experimentally on a trepanated rat that it increases by a factor 25 the sensitivity of Power Doppler images because both the number of acquisitions for each pixel and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are increased with Ultrafast Doppler. High quality images of the rat brain vascularization are presented, showing the ability of Ultrafast Doppler to detect flows in very small vessels. In clinics, this technique could be applied for high quality brain angiography of newborn babies through the fontanel.