Minimum requirement of artificial noise level for using noise-assisted correlation algorithm to suppress artifacts in ultrasonic Nakagami images.

The Nakagami image is a complementary imaging mode for pulse-echo ultrasound B-scan to characterize tissues. White noise in anechoic areas induces artifacts in the Nakagami image. Recently, we proposed a noise-assisted correlation algorithm (NCA) for suppressing the Nakagami artifact. In the NCA, artificial white noise is intentionally added twice to backscattered signals to produce two noisy data, which are used to establish a correlation profile for rejecting noise. This study explored the effects of artificial noise level on the NCA to suppress the artifact of the Nakagami image. Simulations were conducted to produce B-mode images of anechoic regions under signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of 20, 10 and 5 dB. Various artificial noise levels ranging from 0.1- to 1-fold of the intrinsic noise amplitude were used in the NCA for constructing the Nakagami images. Phantom experiments were conducted to validate the performance of using the optimal artificial noise level suggested by the simulation results to suppress the Nakagami artifacts by the NCA. The simulation results indicated that the artifacts of the Nakagami image in the anechoic regions can be gradually suppressed by increasing the artificial noise level used in the NCA to improve the image contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The CNR of the Nakagami image reached 20 dB when the artificial noise level was 0.7-fold of the intrinsic noise amplitude. This criterion was demonstrated by the phantom results to provide the NCA with an excellent ability to obtain artifact-free Nakagami images.