The Delay Multiply and Sum Beamforming Algorithm in Ultrasound B-Mode Medical Imaging

Most of ultrasound medical imaging systems currently on the market implement standard Delay and Sum (DAS) beamforming to form B-mode images. However, image resolution and contrast achievable with DAS are limited by the aperture size and by the operating frequency. For this reason, different beamform...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on medical imaging 2015-04, Vol.34 (4), p.940-949
Main Authors: Matrone, Giulia, Savoia, Alessandro Stuart, Caliano, Giosue, Magenes, Giovanni
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Apertures
Array signal processing
Beamforming
Biomedical imaging
contrast resolution
delay multiply and sum
Delays
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Image resolution
Phantoms, Imaging
RF signals
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasonography - methods
ultrasound medical imaging
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Most of ultrasound medical imaging systems currently on the market implement standard Delay and Sum (DAS) beamforming to form B-mode images. However, image resolution and contrast achievable with DAS are limited by the aperture size and by the operating frequency. For this reason, different beamformers have been presented in the literature that are mainly based on adaptive algorithms, which allow achieving higher performance at the cost of an increased computational complexity. In this paper, we propose the use of an alternative nonlinear beamforming algorithm for medical ultrasound imaging, which is called Delay Multiply and Sum (DMAS) and that was originally conceived for a RADAR microwave system for breast cancer detection. We modify the DMAS beamformer and test its performance on both simulated and experimentally collected linear-scan data, by comparing the Point Spread Functions, beampatterns, synthetic phantom and in vivo carotid artery images obtained with standard DAS and with the proposed algorithm. Results show that the DMAS beamformer outperforms DAS in both simulated and experimental trials and that the main improvement brought about by this new method is a significantly higher contrast resolution (i.e., narrower main lobe and lower side lobes), which turns out into an increased dynamic range and better quality of B-mode images.
ISSN:0278-0062
1558-254X
DOI:10.1109/TMI.2014.2371235