Effect of instrument settings on liquid-containing lesion images characterized by radiofrequency ultrasound local estimators

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ultrasonic instrument gain, transducer frequency, and depth on the color variety and color filling of radiofrequency ultrasonic local estimators (RULES) images which indicated specific physical representation of liquid-containing lesions in order to find the optimal settings for the clinical application of RULES in liquid-containing lesions. Changing the ultrasonic instrument gain, transducer frequency, and depth affected the color filling and color variety of 21 pathologically-confirmed liquid-containing lesion images analyzed by RULES. Blue colored fill dominated the RULES images to represent the liquid-containing lesions. A frequency of 12.5MHz led to red and green colors along the inner edges of the liquid-containing lesions. Changing the gain resulted in significantly different blue colored filling that was highest when the gain was 90 to 100. Changing the frequency also significantly changed the blue color filling, with the highest filling occurring at 12.5MHz. Changing the depth did not affect the blue color filling. The liquid components of the lesions may be identified by their characteristic manifestations in RULES, where color variety is affected by transducer frequency and blue color filling which represent liquid-containing lesions in RULES images is affected by frequency and gain.