Acoustic reciprocity of spatial coherence in ultrasound imaging
- 11 May 2015
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
- Vol. 62 (5), 852-861
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tuffc.2014.006928
Abstract
A conventional ultrasound image is formed by transmitting a focused wave into tissue, time-shifting the backscattered echoes received on an array transducer, and summing the resulting signals. The van Cittert-Zernike theorem predicts a particular similarity, or coherence, of these focused signals across the receiving array. Many groups have used an estimate of the coherence to augment or replace the B-mode image in an effort to suppress noise and stationary clutter echo signals, but this measurement requires access to individual receive channel data. Most clinical systems have efficient pipelines for producing focused and summed RF data without any direct way to individually address the receive channels. We describe a method for performing coherence measurements that is more accessible for a wide range of coherence-based imaging. The reciprocity of the transmit and receive apertures in the context of coherence is derived and equivalence of the coherence function is validated experimentally using a research scanner. The proposed method is implemented on a commercial ultrasound system and in vivo short-lag spatial coherence imaging is demonstrated using only summed RF data. The components beyond the acquisition hardware and beamformer necessary to produce a real-time ultrasound coherence imaging system are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Equivalence of time and aperture domain additive noise in ultrasound coherenceThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2015
- Spatial coherence in human tissue: implications for imaging and measurementIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 2014
- Synthetic aperture focusing for short-lag spatial coherence imagingIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 2013
- Apodization schemes for short-lag spatial coherence imagingPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2013
- Synthetic aperture techniques with a virtual source elementIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1998
- Synthetic aperture imaging for small scale systemsIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1995
- Adaptive focusing in scattering media through sound-speed inhomogeneities: The van Cittert Zernike approach and focusing criterionThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1994
- Calculation of pressure fields from arbitrarily shaped, apodized, and excited ultrasound transducersIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1992
- Low Contrast Detectability and Contrast/Detail Analysis in Medical UltrasoundIEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics, 1983
- A Digital Synthetic Focus Acoustic Imaging System for NDEPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,1978