title: A new method of spatial compounding imaging.
abstract: A new method of spatial compound imaging is presented that improves image quality without the usual requirement to decrease the frame rate. The new method of imaging utilizes three transducers for data acquisition. The transducer located at the center of the transducer system is a phased array probe that acts as both transmitter and receiver. The other transducers are unfocused pistons that act only as receivers. Envelope data acquired by each transducer are combined to form a final image with improved quality (speckle contrast, target detectability and lateral resolution). It is shown that the improvement in speckle contrast depends on the correlation between individual images acquired by the transducers. The effective aperture approach is used for analytic estimation of the correlation between images in order to optimize the lateral separation between transducers. Using simulations, several compounding strategies have been performed to find the strategy that maximizes image quality. The central frequency of 2.5 MHz is used in simulations. Quantitative analysis of simulated B-mode images shows that the new method of imaging efficiently improves visibility, detectability, and lateral resolution of low contrast regions. The image frame rate is preserved because multiple scans are not required for the spatial compounding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel. vera@biomed.technion.ac.il
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Behar
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Adam
authors.forename: Zvi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*