Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging Using Combined Transmissions With Cross-Coherence-Based Reconstruction

Plane-wave-based ultrafast imaging has become the prevalent technique for non-conventional ultrasound imaging. The image quality, especially in terms of the suppression of artifacts, is generally compromised by reducing the number of transmissions for a higher frame rate. We hereby propose a new ult...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on medical imaging 2018-02, Vol.37 (2), p.337-348
Main Authors: Zhang, Yang, Guo, Yuexin, Lee, Wei-Ning
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Apertures
Array signal processing
Arteries - diagnostic imaging
Coherence
Compounding
Heart - diagnostic imaging
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Image quality
Image reconstruction
Imaging
In vivo methods and tests
Phantoms, Imaging
plane wave
Soft tissues
Spatial resolution
spherical wave
Spherical waves
Swine
Time Factors
Tissues
ultrafast
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasonic testing
Ultrasonography - methods
Ultrasound
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Summary:Plane-wave-based ultrafast imaging has become the prevalent technique for non-conventional ultrasound imaging. The image quality, especially in terms of the suppression of artifacts, is generally compromised by reducing the number of transmissions for a higher frame rate. We hereby propose a new ultrafast imaging framework that reduces not only the side lobe artifacts but also the axial lobe artifacts using combined transmissions with a new coherence-based factor. The results from simulations, in vitro wire phantoms, the ex vivo porcine artery, and the in vivo porcine heart show that our proposed methodology greatly reduced the axial lobe artifact by 25±5 dB compared with coherent plane-wave compounding (CPWC), which was considered as the ultrafast imaging standard, and suppressed side lobe artifacts by 15 ± 5 dB compared with CPWC and coherent spherical-wave compounding. The reduction of artifacts in our proposed ultrafast imaging framework led to a better boundary delineation of soft tissues than CPWC.
ISSN:0278-0062
1558-254X
DOI:10.1109/TMI.2017.2736423