Full correction for spatially distributed speed-of-sound in echo ultrasound based on measuring aberration delays via transmit beam steering

Jaeger, Michael; Robinson, Elise; Akarçay, Hidayet Günhan; Frenz, Martin (2015). Full correction for spatially distributed speed-of-sound in echo ultrasound based on measuring aberration delays via transmit beam steering. Physics in medicine and biology, 60(11), pp. 4497-4515. Institute of Physics Publishing IOP 10.1088/0031-9155/60/11/4497

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Aberrations of the acoustic wave front, caused by spatial variations of the
speed-of-sound, are a main limiting factor to the diagnostic power of medical
ultrasound imaging. If not accounted for, aberrations result in low resolution
and increased side lobe level, over all reducing contrast in deep tissue
imaging. Various techniques have been proposed for quantifying aberrations
by analysing the arrival time of coherent echoes from so-called guide stars or
beacons. In situations where a guide star is missing, aperture-based techniques may give ambiguous results. Moreover, they are conceptually focused on aberrators that can be approximated as a phase screen in front of the probe. We propose a novel technique, where the effect of aberration is detected in the reconstructed image as opposed to the aperture data. The varying local echo phase when changing the transmit beam steering angle directly reflects the varying arrival time of the transmit wave front. This allows sensing the angle-dependent aberration delay in a spatially resolved way, and thus aberration correction for a spatially distributed volume aberrator. In phantoms containing a cylindrical aberrator, we achieved location-independent diffraction-limited resolution as well as accurate display of echo location based on reconstructing the speed-of-sound spatially resolved. First successful volunteer results confirm the clinical potential of the proposed technique.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Applied Physics
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Applied Physics > Biomedical Photonics

UniBE Contributor:

Jaeger, Michael, Akarçay, Hidayet Günhan, Frenz, Martin

Subjects:

600 Technology > 620 Engineering
500 Science > 530 Physics

ISSN:

0031-9155

Publisher:

Institute of Physics Publishing IOP

Language:

English

Submitter:

Martin Frenz-Lips

Date Deposited:

15 Jan 2016 15:18

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:51

Publisher DOI:

10.1088/0031-9155/60/11/4497

PubMed ID:

25989072

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.74992

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/74992

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