A motion-based approach to abdominal clutter reduction.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
In ultrasound images, clutter is a noise artifact most easily observed in anechoic or hypoechoic regions. It appears as diffuse echoes overlying anatomical structures of diagnostic importance, obscuring tissue borders and reducing image contrast. A novel clutter reduction method for abdominal images is proposed, wherein the abdominal wall is displaced during successive-frame image acquisitions. A region of clutter distal to the abdominal wall was observed to move with the abdominal wall, and finite impulse response (FIR) and blind source separation (BSS) motion filters were implemented to reduce this clutter. The proposed clutter reduction method was tested in simulated and phantom data and applied to fundamental and harmonic in vivo bladder and liver images from 2 volunteers. Results show clutter reductions ranging from 0 to 18 dB in FIR-filtered images and 9 to 27 dB in BSS-filtered images. The contrast-to-noise ratio was improved by 21 to 68% and 44 to 108% in FIR- and BSS-filtered images, respectively. Improvements in contrast ranged from 4 to 12 dB. The method shows promise for reducing clutter in other abdominal images.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Lediju, MA; Pihl, MJ; Hsu, SJ; Dahl, JJ; Gallippi, CM; Trahey, GE
Published Date
- November 2009
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 56 / 11
Start / End Page
- 2437 - 2449
PubMed ID
- 19942530
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC2835155
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1525-8955
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0885-3010
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1109/tuffc.2009.1331
Language
- eng