Wang Y, Zheng C, Wang Y, Feng S, Liu M, Peng H. An adaptive beamformer based on dynamic phase coherence factor for pixel-based medical ultrasound imaging.
Technol Health Care 2023;
31:747-770. [PMID:
36314178 DOI:
10.3233/thc-220450]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Pixel-based beamforming realizes dynamic focusing at the pixel level with a focused beam by assuming that the received signals are composed of spherical pulses. Far-focused pixel-based (FPB) imaging was proposed to avoid artifacts around the focal depth. However, the contrast improvement is limited.
OBJECTIVE
We propose an adaptive weighting method based on dynamic phase coherence factor (DPCF) to improve the image contrast while preserving the speckle pattern.
METHODS
The phase variation is dynamically estimated based on the noise energy proportion of echo signals and it is used to calculate phase coherence weights for suppressing interference and preserving desired signals. A depth-dependent parameter is designed for DPCF to enhance the performance of noise and clutter suppression in the far-field region. We further use the subarray averaging technique to smooth the speckle texture.
RESULTS
The proposed method was evaluated on simulated, phantom experimental, and in vivo data. Results show that, compared with the phase coherence factor (PCF) based method, DPCF respectively leads to average CR improvements by more than 60% and 24% in simulation and experiment, while obtaining an improved speckle signal-to-noise ratio.
CONCLUSIONS
The proposed method is a potentially valuable approach to obtaining high-quality ultrasound images in clinical applications.
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