Ultrafast imaging in biomedical ultrasound

Although the use of ultrasonic plane-wave transmissions rather than line-per-line focused beam transmissions has been long studied in research, clinical application of this technology was only recently made possible through developments in graphical processing unit (GPU)-based platforms. Far beyond a technological breakthrough, the use of plane or diverging wave transmissions enables attainment of ultrafast frame rates (typically faster than 1000 frames per second) over a large field of view. This concept has also inspired the emergence of completely novel imaging modes which are valuable for ultrasound-based screening, diagnosis, and therapeutic monitoring. In this review article, we present the basic…