Sources of image degradation in fundamental and harmonic ultrasound imaging: a nonlinear, full-wave, simulation study.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

A full-wave equation that describes nonlinear propagation in a heterogeneous attenuating medium is solved numerically with finite differences in the time domain. This numerical method is used to simulate propagation of a diagnostic ultrasound pulse through a measured representation of the human abdomen with heterogeneities in speed of sound, attenuation, density, and nonlinearity. Conventional delay-and-sum beamforming is used to generate point spread functions (PSFs) that display the effects of these heterogeneities. For the particular imaging configuration that is modeled, these PSFs reveal that the primary source of degradation in fundamental imaging is due to reverberation from near-field structures. Compared with fundamental imaging, reverberation clutter in harmonic imaging is 27.1 dB lower. Simulated tissue with uniform velocity but unchanged impedance characteristics indicates that for harmonic imaging, the primary source of degradation is phase aberration.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Pinton, GF; Trahey, GE; Dahl, JJ

Published Date

  • June 2011

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 58 / 6

Start / End Page

  • 1272 - 1283

PubMed ID

  • 21693410

Pubmed Central ID

  • PMC4443447

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1525-8955

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0885-3010

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1109/tuffc.2011.1938

Language

  • eng