Numerical Ray-Tracing in Full Angle Spatial Compounding

Koch A, Koch I, Hansen C, Lerch R, Ermert H (2012)

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2012

Journal

ACOUSTICAL IMAGING, VOL 31

Publisher: Springer

City/Town: Dordrecht

Book Volume: 31

Pages Range: 103-113

Conference Proceedings Title: Acoustical Imaging

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-2619-2_11

Abstract

The assumption of straight-line wave propagation is common in medical ultrasound. While sufficient for unidirectional systems, it is the main cause for degenerated FASC (Full Angle Spatial Compounding) images, where B-mode data from different viewing angles around an object, e.g. the female breast, are superimposed. To overcome this, we have implemented an eikonal equation based algorithm to perform numerical ray-tracing in inhomogeneous speed of sound distributions. Results can be used to correct ray-paths prior to FASC. Our goal was to improve FASC image quality by using numerical ray-tracing. A tissue mimicking phantom with reservoirs filled with different concentrations of saline water and correspondingly different speeds of sound was imaged with a 2.5 MHz transducer. To evaluate the isotropy of the system's spatial resolution, seven fibers were included into the phantom and the reservoirs. We compared the full width at half maximum of line scatterer images in a FASC image corrected by ray-paths from the numerical ray-tracing with an uncorrected FASC image. Results show that numerical ray-tracing improves the image contrast, eliminates double line artifacts and improves the resolution and its isotropy in FASC.

Authors with CRIS profile

Reinhard Lerch Lehrstuhl für Autonome Systeme und Mechatronik Helmut Ermert Lehrstuhl für Autonome Systeme und Mechatronik

Involved external institutions

Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Koch, A., Koch, I., Hansen, C., Lerch, R., & Ermert, H. (2012). Numerical Ray-Tracing in Full Angle Spatial Compounding. In Acoustical Imaging (pp. 103-113). Dordrecht: Springer.

MLA:

Koch, Andreas, et al. "Numerical Ray-Tracing in Full Angle Spatial Compounding." Proceedings of the Acoustical Imaging Dordrecht: Springer, 2012. 103-113.

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