Statistical relationship between ultrasound echo envelope and envelope peak.

This study shows that the amplitude information of ultrasound echoes is carried mainly by the envelope peaks (EPs). It is first shown that the EPs in an A-line represent the maximum number of independent amplitude data. It is then demonstrated that the entire envelope could be approximately reconstructed from the EPs. Finally, using the echo data from a tissue-mimicking phantom, it is found that there are no significant differences among the attenuation coefficients estimated from the EPs, the original envelope samples, and the reconstructed envelope samples. The results of this study indicate that, in the time domain, the attenuation coefficient can be most efficiently estimated from the envelope peaks.