title: Data weighting for principal component noise reduction in contrast enhanced ultrasound.
abstract: Pulse inversion ultrasound is a mechanism for preferentially displaying contrast agent in blood vessels while suppressing signal from tissue. We seek a method for identifying and segmenting areas of the liver with similar statistically significant time intensity curves. As a first step in this process, a method of weighting Rayleigh distributed ultrasound image data before principal components analysis is presented. Simulation studies show that relative mean squared error can be reduced by 14% when the correct number of dimensions in selected. Our method is tested on an in vitro ultrasound phantom showing slightly increased error suppression, and is demonstrated on a clinical liver scan, showing decreased correlation between signals in the low intensity range.
authors.affiliation: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada. gord.lueck@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Gord
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lueck
authors.forename: Peter N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: Anne L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Martel
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016477:Artifacts; D003287:Contrast Media; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media