Analysis of speckle in ultrasound images using fractional order statistics and the homodyned k-distribution.
It is necessary to identify speckled regions in ultrasound images to control adaptive speckle suppression algorithms, for tissue characterisation, and to estimate the elevational separation of B-scans by speckle decorrelation. Previous authors have proposed classification techniques based on second order powers of the homodyned k-distribution, or lower order powers of the more limited k-distribution. In this paper we explore the speckle discrimination properties of statistics based on arbitrary powers of the ultrasound echo envelope signal using a combination of simulations and theoretical results from the homodyned k-distribution. We conclude that statistics based on powers less than one are surprisingly less effective than some higher powers. A simple discriminant function for speckle is evaluated quantitatively in simulation and qualitatively on sample B-scan images.
Prager
Richard W
RW
Department of Engineering, Cambridge University, UK. rwp@eng.cam.ac.uk
Gee
Andrew H
AH
Treece
Graham M
GM
Berman
Laurence H
LH
D000465:Algorithms; D014463:Ultrasonography