Quasi-static elastography and ultrasound plane-wave imaging: The effect of beam-forming strategies on the accuracy of displacement estimations

摘要

Quasi-static elastography is a widely applied ultrasound method in which RF data acquired in tissue at different states of deformation are correlated to estimate displacements and strain (displacement gradient). A recent development is the introduction of ultrafast plane-wave imaging where element data are beam-formed after collection to reconstruct the image lines. Several beam-forming strategies are available: time-domain based delay-and-sum (DAS) based on time-of-flight, and frequency domain based techniques like Stolt's f-k (Stolt) and Lu's method (Lu) based on an exploding reflector model and ideal transmit-receive model, respectively. Plane-wave beam-forming allows arbitrary grid designs not limited by probe pitch etc. In this study, we investigated the influence of beam-forming strategies and grid designs on the performance of displacement estimation.