Plane wave image quality improvement using ADMIRE algorithm

摘要

We previously introduced a model-based clutter suppression algorithm that operates on channel data and can recover degraded ultrasound images. We call the algorithm aperture domain model image reconstruction (ADMIRE). In previous work, ADMIRE demonstrated substantial improvements of image quality in vivo due to its suppression of reverberation artifacts while preserving the signals of interest. ADMIRE also suppresses off-axis clutter. Because of these characteristics, we are interested in applying ADMIRE to plane wave images. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of ADMIRE in conjunction with plane wave synthetic aperture sequences acquired from data with minimal reverberation. To evaluate the ADMIRE algorithm, we used the Plane-wave Imaging Challenge in Medical UltraSound (PICMUS) data and selected 1, 2, 11 and 75 plane waves for image formation. We applied plane wave synthetic aperture delays and then implemented ADMIRE followed by a minimum variance (MV) beamforming. We then evaluated the resulting plane wave images using the image quality metrics specified by the PICMUS. The contrast measurements having a simulated cyst phantom were 12.61 dB, 14.32 dB, 18.57 dB and 19.16 dB for 1, 2, 11 and 75 plane waves, respectively.