title: Postprocessing Approaches for the Improvement of Cardiac Ultrasound B-Mode Images: A Review.
abstract: The improvement in the quality and diagnostic value of ultrasound images has been an ongoing research theme for the last three decades. Cardiac ultrasound suffers from a wide range of artifacts such as acoustic noise, shadowing, and enhancement. Most artifacts are a consequence of the interaction of the transmitted ultrasound signals with anatomic structures of the examined body. Structures such as bone, lungs (air), and fat have a direct limiting effect on the quality of the acquired images. Furthermore, physical phenomena such as speckle introduce a granular pattern on the imaged tissue structures that can sometimes obscure fine anatomic detail. Over the years, numerous studies have attempted to address a range of artifacts in medical ultrasound, including cardiac ultrasound B-mode images. This review provides extensive coverage of such attempts identifying their limitations as well as future research opportunities.
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perperidis
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio