Benjamin Alex, Zubajlo Rebecca E, Dhyani Manish, Samir Anthony E, Thomenius Kai E, Grajo Joseph R, Anthony Brian W
Device Realization and Computational Instrumentation Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation Abdominal Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Internal Medicine, Steward Carney Hospital, Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2018 Dec;44(12):2739-2748. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2018.07.021. Epub 2018 Sep 15.
Described here is a method to determine the longitudinal speed of sound in speckle-dominated ultrasound images. The method is based on the concept that the quality of an ultrasound image is maximized when the beamformer's speed of sound matches the speed in the medium. The method captures the quality of the ultrasound image using two quantitative image-quality metrics: image brightness and sharpness around the intended focal zone. The proposed method requires no calibration, is computationally efficient and is deployable on commercial ultrasound systems without hardware or software modifications. Ex vivo testing on tissue-mimicking phantoms indicates the method's accuracy in predicting the true speed of sound to within 1% of ground truth values.
本文描述了一种在散斑主导的超声图像中确定纵向声速的方法。该方法基于这样一个概念：当波束形成器的声速与介质中的声速匹配时，超声图像的质量达到最大化。该方法使用两个定量图像质量指标来捕捉超声图像的质量：预期聚焦区域周围的图像亮度和清晰度。所提出的方法无需校准，计算效率高，并且无需对硬件或软件进行修改即可部署在商用超声系统上。在组织模拟体模上进行的离体测试表明，该方法在预测真实声速方面的准确性可达到与真实值相差在1%以内。
