Abstract
Although plane wave imaging (PWI) has been extensively employed for ultrafast ultrasound imaging, its potential for sectorial B-mode imaging with a convex array transducer has not yet been widely recognized. Recently, we reported an optimized PWI approach for sector scanning that exploits the dynamic transmit focusing capability. In this paper, we first report the clinical applicability of the optimized PWI for abdominal ultrasonography by in vivo image and video evaluations and compare it with conventional focusing (CF) and diverging wave imaging (DWI), which is another dynamic transmit focusing technique generally used for sectorial imaging. In vivo images and videos of the liver, kidney, and gallbladder were obtained from 30 healthy volunteers using PWI, DWI, and CF. Three radiologists assessed the phantom images, 156 in vivo images, and 66 in vivo videos. PWI showed significantly enhanced (p < 0.05) spatial resolution, contrast, and noise and artifact reduction, and a 4-fold higher acquisition rate compared to CF and provided similar performances compared to DWI. Because the computations required for PWI are considerably lower than that for DWI, PWI may represent a promising technique for sectorial imaging in abdominal ultrasonography that provides better image quality and eliminates the need for focal depth adjustment.
Highlights
Abdominal ultrasound (US) requires a large field-of-view with high image quality at all depths because abdominal organs examined by US imaging are of various sizes and located at various depths [1]
≥ 100 mm was enhanced (~0.5 mm) and the contrast of cyst targets was improved (~2 dB higher the in vivo study, the radiologists assessed the still images of 52 sets and the video clips of 22 sets, on average) when using diverging wave imaging (DWI) and plane wave imaging (PWI) compared with conventional focusing (CF) (Figures 3 and 4, Table 2)
We evaluated PWI against line-by-line CF imaging and another dynamic transmit focusing technique, DWI, through phantom and in vivo experiments
Summary
Abdominal ultrasound (US) requires a large field-of-view with high image quality at all depths because abdominal organs examined by US imaging are of various sizes and located at various depths [1]. When scanning the entire abdomen, clinicians must constantly adjust the focal depth up and down to the region of interest with one hand while holding a transducer with the other hand. This constant manual adjustment of the focus prolongs the examination time. Multiple beams focused at different depths are successively transmitted to reconstruct a single scanline of an image. The frame rate decreases inversely proportional to the number of foci This technique is commonly used for linear array imaging with a short depth of view (
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