Attenuation estimation using spectral cross-correlation

Estimation of the local attenuation coefficient in soft tissue is important both for clinical diagnosis and for further analysis of ultrasound B-mode images. However, it is difficult to extract spectral properties in a small region of interest from noisy backscattered ultrasound radio frequency (RF)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control ferroelectrics, and frequency control, 2007-03, Vol.54 (3), p.510-519
Main Authors: Hyungsuk Kim, Varghese, T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic signal processing
Acoustics
Algorithms
Attenuation
Attenuation coefficients
Backscattering
Biological and medical sciences
Biological tissues
Clinical diagnosis
Diffraction
Estimates
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Image analysis
Image Enhancement - methods
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods
Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects)
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous. Technology
Noise robustness
Phantoms, Imaging
Physics
Radio frequencies
Radio frequency
Regression Analysis
Reproducibility of Results
RF signals
Sensitivity and Specificity
Spectra
Statistics as Topic
Studies
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasonic investigative techniques
Ultrasonic transducers
Ultrasonography - instrumentation
Ultrasonography - methods
Ultrasound
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Summary:Estimation of the local attenuation coefficient in soft tissue is important both for clinical diagnosis and for further analysis of ultrasound B-mode images. However, it is difficult to extract spectral properties in a small region of interest from noisy backscattered ultrasound radio frequency (RF) signals. Diffraction effects due to transducer beam focal properties also have to be corrected for accurate estimation of the attenuation coefficient. In this paper, we propose a new attenuation estimation method using spectral cross-correlation between consecutive power spectra obtained from the backscattered RF signals at different depths. Since the spectral cross-correlation method estimates the spectral shift by comparing the entire power spectra, it is more robust and stable to the spectral noise artifacts in the backscattered RF signals. A diffraction compensation technique using a reference phantom with a known attenuation coefficient value is also presented. Local attenuation coefficient estimates obtained using spectral cross-correlation are within 2.3% of the actual value with small estimation variances, as demonstrated in the simulation results
ISSN:0885-3010
1525-8955
DOI:10.1109/TUFFC.2007.274