Bae S, Kim BH, Alizad A, Fatemi M, Song TK. Experimental Study of Aperiodic Plane Wave Imaging for Ultrafast 3-D Ultrasound Imaging.
IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2022;
69:2679-2690. [PMID:
35180073 PMCID:
PMC9620471 DOI:
10.1109/tbme.2022.3152212]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Although plane wave imaging (PWI) with multiple plane waves (PWs) steered at different angles enables ultrafast three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasonic imaging, there is still a challenging tradeoff between image quality and frame rate. To address this challenge, we recently proposed the aperiodic PWI (APWI) with mathematical analysis and simulation study. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of APWI and evaluate the performance with phantom and in vivo experiments.
METHODS
APWI with a concentric ring angle pattern (APWI-C) and APWI with a sunflower pattern (APWI-S) are evaluated. For experimental verification of the methods, the experimental results are compared with simulation results in terms of the mainlobe-to-sidelobe ratio. In addition, the performance of APWI is compared with that of conventional PWI by using a commercial phantom. To examine the potential for clinical use of APWI, a gallstone-mimicking phantom study and an in vivo carotid artery experiment are also conducted.
RESULTS
In the phantom study, the APWI methods provide a contrast ratio approximately 23 dB higher than that of PWI. In a gallstone mimicking experiment, the proposed methods yield 3-D rendered stone images more similar to the real stones than PWI. In the in vivo carotid artery images, APWI reduces the clutter artifacts inside the artery.
CONCLUSION
Phantom and in vivo studies show that the APWI enhances the contrast without compromising the spatial resolution and frame rate.
SIGNIFICANCE
This study experimentally demonstrates the feasibility and advantage of APWI for ultrafast 3-D ultrasonic imaging.
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