Abstract
The study of ultrasound contrast agent imaging (USCAI) based on plane waves has recently attracted increasing attention. A series of USCAI techniques have been developed to improve the imaging quality. Most of the existing methods enhance the contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) using the time-frequency spectrum differences between the tissue and ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) region. In this paper, a new USCAI method based on bubble region detection was proposed, in which the frequency difference as well as the dissimilarity of tissue and UCA in the spatial domain was taken into account. A bubble wavelet based on the Doinikov model was firstly constructed. Bubble wavelet transformation (BWT) was then applied to strengthen the UCA region and weaken the tissue region. The bubble region was thereafter detected by using the combination of eigenvalue and eigenspace-based coherence factor (ESBCF). The phantom and rabbit in vivo experiment results suggested that our method was capable of suppressing the background interference and strengthening the information of UCA. For the phantom experiment, the imaging CTR was improved by 10.1 dB compared with plane wave imaging based on delay-and-sum (DAS) and by 4.2 dB over imaging based on BWT on average. Furthermore, for the rabbit kidney experiment, the corresponding improvements were 18.0 dB and 3.4 dB, respectively.
Highlights
Ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) [1,2] are a type of diagnostic reagents that typically consist of gas-filled microbubbles with a diameter ranging from 1 to 10 μm
Based on the observation of the differences between the UCA and the tissue region on the maximum eigenvalues and eigenspace-based coherence factor (ESBCF) index, we proposed a bubble region detection scheme based on the combination of eigenvalue and ESBCF index
A new ultrasound contrast agent imaging (USCAI) method based on bubble region detection was proposed
Summary
Ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) [1,2] are a type of diagnostic reagents that typically consist of gas-filled microbubbles with a diameter ranging from 1 to 10 μm. The microbubbles are filled with low solubility gas and are coated with a shell to prevent the microbubble from dissolving. UCAs are injected intravenously into the body and are considered safe for use in humans. UCAs have been used clinically since the 1980s [1]. Ultrasound contrast agent imaging (USCAI) [3]. Has generated increased attention in recent years. As a result of the compressibility of microbubbles and the large acoustic impedance difference between them and the surrounding tissue, USCAI can greatly improve the contrast (CR) and contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) of a clinical ultrasound image
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