Experimental corroboration of the nonstationary strain estimation errors in elastography.
The nonstationary variation in the noise performance of the cross-correlation-based strain estimator due to frequency-dependent attenuation and lateral and elevational signal decorrelation have been addressed theoretically in recent papers using the strain-filter approach. In this paper, we present the experimental verification and corroboration of the nonstationary effects on the strain estimation results. The accuracy and precision of the strain estimate deteriorates with lateral position in the elastogram, due to the lateral motion of tissue scatterers, and with depth, due to frequency-dependent attenuation. The results illustrate that the best strain-estimation noise performance is obtained in the focal zone of the transducer and around the axis of symmetry of the phantom.
Varghese
T
T
Department of Medical Physics, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. tvarghese@facstaff.wisc.edu
Ophir
J
J
D004548:Elasticity; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014465:Ultrasonics; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*