Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging

Among medical imaging modalities, such as computed tomography (CT) andmagnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound imaging stands out due to itstemporal resolution. Owing to the nature of medical ultrasound imaging, it has beenused for not only observation of the morphology of living organs but also functionalimaging, such as blood flow imaging and evaluation of the cardiac function. Ultrafastultrasound imaging, which has recently become widely available, significantlyincreases the opportunities for medical functional imaging. Ultrafast ultrasoundimaging typically enables imaging frame-rates of up to ten thousand frames persecond (fps). Due to the extremely high temporal resolution, this enablesvisualization of rapid dynamic responses of biological tissues, which cannot beobserved and analyzed by conventional ultrasound imaging. This Special Issueincludes various studies of improvements to the performance of ultrafast ultrasound.