Detection of shear wave propagation in an artery using pulse echo ultrasound and Kalman filtering

Oscillatory radiation force from ultrasound can be used to excite monochromatic waves on an artery. The wave propagation speed is related to the elasticity and viscosity of the artery, and can be estimated from phase changes over a short distance traveled. In our earlier phantom experiments, a laser vibrometer was used as a detection method because the motion of the artery is very small (submicron). We have proposed a novel method using pulse echo ultrasound and Kalman filtering to detect such small harmonic motions, which facilitates the measurements in opaque tissues. In this work, we apply this new method to estimate the shear wave velocity of an artery.