System and method for ECG-triggered retrospective color flow ultrasound imaging

1. A method of producing an ultrasound image, comprising:

generating ultrasound;

transmitting N pulses of the ultrasound into a subject at a first location, wherein a first reference point of an ECG signal taken from the subject triggers the ultrasound transmission;

receiving N pulses of ultrasound reflected from the subject at the first location;

transmitting N pulses of the ultrasound into the subject at a second location, wherein a second reference point of an ECG signal taken from the subject triggers the ultrasound transmission;

receiving N pulses of ultrasound reflected from the subject at the second location;

processing the N pulses of received ultrasound from the first location to form N′ first ultrasound color traces and processing the N pulses of received ultrasound from the second location to form N′ second ultrasound color traces, wherein N′ is less than or equal to N−1;

incrementally repeating from n=1 to N′ reconstructing the N′ first ultrasound color traces and N′ second ultrasound color traces into N′ image frames, wherein each image frame is comprised of a first line corresponding to the nth first ultrasound color trace and a second line corresponding to the nth second ultrasound trace.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating ultrasound in a frequency of about 20 MHz to 60 MHz.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the ultrasound on a small animal to image blood flow.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the small animal is a mouse.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the ultrasound on a small animal to produce a blood velocity estimate.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the small animal is a mouse.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising overlaying the ultrasound image on a retrospective B-scan ultrasound image.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound is generated by a single element mechanically scanned transducer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound is generated by an electronically steerable array transducer.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a plurality of image frames in series to form a cineloop.

11. A system for developing an ultrasound image, comprising:

an ultrasound probe having a transducer capable of transmitting and receiving ultrasound energy;

a transmit subsystem configured to transmit a plurality of ultrasound pulses at a plurality of locations on a subject's anatomy, the plurality of ultrasound pulses transmitted at each of the plurality of locations when triggered by a reference point of an ECG signal;

a memory on which resides software, wherein received ultrasound energy is input into the software from each of the plurality of locations on a subject's anatomy and corresponding color flow traces are output by the software; and

a processor configured to generate a plurality of ECG-triggered retrospective color flow ultrasound image frames, wherein each frame is comprised of lines and each line corresponds to one of the color flow traces from one of the plurality of locations on the subject's anatomy, wherein the memory is coupled to the processor.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the ultrasound occurs at a frequency range of about 20 MHz to 60 MHz.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the ultrasound is performed on a small animal to image blood flow.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the small animal is a mouse.

15. The system of claim 11 , further comprising:

a second software residing on the memory, wherein the color flow traces are processed by the second software forming a representation of blood flow over a region or portion of the subject's anatomy.