Abstract
Maternal and fetal blood circulation has been investigated for nearly a decade through ultrasound (US) techniques. Evaluation of the spectrogram related to a single sample volume has been proven valuable for the assessment of fetal well-being and for prediction of pregnancy complications. In this work, an alternative technique, called Multigate Spectral Doppler Analysis (MSDA), is proposed. In this approach, 128 sample volumes aligned along the same scan line are simultaneously investigated to detect the blood velocity profile with high resolution. Profiles obtained through MSDA reveal features not detectable with the standard US technique, thus representing a more accurate flow signature. Some preliminary illustrative results are reported here.