title: Phase aberration effects in elastography.
abstract: In sonography, phase aberration plays a role in the corruption of sonograms. Phase aberration does not have a significant impact on elastography, if statistically similar phase errors are present in both the pre- and postcompression signals. However, if the phase errors are present in only one of the pre- or postcompression signal pairs, the precision of the strain estimation process will be reduced. In some cases, increased phase errors may occur only in the postcompression signal due to changes in the tissue structure with the applied compression. Phase-aberration effects increase with applied strain and may be viewed as an image quality derating factor, much like frequency-dependent attenuation or undesired lateral tissue motion. In this paper, we present a theoretical and simulation study of the effects of phase aberration on the elastographic strain-estimation process, using the strain filter approach.
authors.affiliation: Ultrasonics Laboratory, Department of Radiology, The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA. tvarghese@facstaff.wisc.edu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilgen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ophir
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014463:Ultrasonography