Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1762765 | Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology | 2007 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Accurate measurement of structural features represented in medical images is important in clinical trials and patient diagnosis. A key factor for precision is spatial resolution, which in ultrasonic imaging is limited by transducer array arrangements, transmitting frequency, and data acquisition firmware. In this paper, a variation of pixel compounding is proposed to enhance ultrasound resolution using acquired cine loops. The technique operates on a sequence of ultrasound B-scan images acquired with random motion. Subpixel registration is estimated and a maximum a posteriori (MAP) approach with the shift information is used to reconstruct a high-resolution single image. A nonhomogeneous anisotropic diffusion algorithm follows from the estimation process and is implemented to enhance the high-resolution edges. Preliminary tests using simulations and phantom studies show promising results. Pixel compounding can be a powerful preprocessing tool to assure accurate segmentation, measurement, and analysis of ultrasound images. (E-mail: theresa.tuthill@pfizer.com)
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Physics and Astronomy
Acoustics and Ultrasonics
Authors
Zhi Yang, Theresa A. Tuthill, David L. Raunig, Martin D. Fox, Mostafa Analoui,