Pulse repetition frequency

Last revised by Sajanakan Sriselvakumar ◉ on 6 Dec 2022

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Botz B, Sriselvakumar S, Murphy A, et al. Pulse repetition frequency. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 05 Jun 2023) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-64450

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-64450

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/64450

rID:

64450

Article created:

22 Nov 2018, Bálint Botz ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Bálint Botz had no recorded disclosures.

View Bálint Botz's current disclosures

Last revised:

6 Dec 2022, Sajanakan Sriselvakumar ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Sajanakan Sriselvakumar had no recorded disclosures.

View Sajanakan Sriselvakumar's current disclosures

Revisions:

5 times, by 4 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Sections:

Imaging Technology

Synonyms:

Pulse repetition frequency (PRF)

Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) indicates the number of ultrasound pulses emitted by the transducer over a designated period of time. It is typically measured as cycles per second or hertz (Hz). In medical ultrasound the typically used range of PRF varies between 1 and 10 kHz ¹. PRF is limited by the maximum depth (R) to be sampled and the acoustic velocity of the medium (c).

PRF_max= acoustic velocity/maximum depth to be sampled x 2 ( c/2R)

A number of artifacts are directly influenced by the pulse repetition frequency, e.g. increasing it diminishes the aliasing artifact commonly encountered during color and spectral Doppler imaging, while decreasing it facilitates e.g. the display of the useful twinkling artifact occurring behind stones and calcifications ².