Abstract: Matrix-array ultrasound produces real-time 3D images of the heart, by employing a square array of transducers to steer the ultrasound beam in three dimensions electronically with no moving parts. Other 3D modalities such as MR, MUGA, and CT require the use of gated studies, which combine many cardiac cycles to produce a single average cycle. Three- dimensional ultrasound eliminates this restriction, in theory permitting the continuous measurement of cardiac ventricular volume, which we call the volumetricardiogram. Towards implementing the volumetricardiogram, we have developed the flow integration transform (FIT), which operates on a 2D slice within the volumetric ultrasound data. The 3D ultrasound machine's scan converter produces a set of such slices in real time, at any desired location and orientation, to which the FIT may then be applied. Although lacking rotational or scale invariance, the FIT is designed to operate in dedicated hardware where an entire transform could be completed within a few microseconds with present integrated circuit technology. This speed would permit the application of a large battery of test shapes, or the evolution of the test shape to converge on that of the actual target. !20
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