From Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2019
Ultrasonic flow imaging remains susceptible to cluttered imaging environments, which often results in degraded image quality. Coherent Flow Power Doppler (CFPD)–a beamforming technique–has demonstrated efficacy in addressing sources of diffuse clutter. CFPD depicts the normalized spatial coherence of the backscattered echo, which is described by the van Cittert-Zernike theorem. However, the use of a normalized coherence metric in CFPD uncouples the image intensity from the magnitude of the underlying blood echo. As a result, CFPD is not a robust approach to study gradation in blood echo energy, which depicts the fractional moving blood volume. We have developed a modified beamforming scheme, termed power-preserving Coherent Flow Power Doppler (ppCFPD), which employs a measure of signal covariance across the aperture, rather than normalized coherence. As shown via Field II simulations, this approach retains the clutter suppression capability of CFPD, while preserving the underlying signal energy, similar to standard power Doppler (PD). Furthermore, we describe ongoing work, in which we have proposed a thresholding scheme derived from a statistical analysis of additive noise, to further improve perception of flow. Overall, this adaptive approach shows promise as an alternative technique to depict flow gradation in cluttered imaging environments.
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Kathryn A. Ozgun and Brett C. Byram, "An adaptive coherent flow power doppler beamforming scheme for improved sensitivity towards blood signal energy," Proc. SPIE 10955, Medical Imaging 2019: Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography, 109550H (Presented at SPIE Medical Imaging: February 17, 2019; Published: 15 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2514184.