论文标题
一种随机方法,用于延迟对窄带传输光束图案的优化,医疗超声
A stochastic approach to delays optimization for narrowband transmit beam pattern in medical ultrasound
论文作者
论文摘要
由于其非电离性质和实时功能,超声成像被广泛用于临床环境中。波束形式代表了超声机的关键组成部分,在塑造重建图像的最终质量方面发挥了重要作用。因此,在医疗超声波中,发射光束图案(TBP)优化是一项重要任务,但是最先进的TBP优化具有众所周知的缺点,例如深度超过深度,存在明显的侧叶和焦点深度后的快速能量掉落。为了克服这些局限性,我们通过将分析集中在其窄带近似上,特别适合于声学辐射力脉冲(ARFI)弹性,并考虑将传输延迟视为自由变量,而不是链接到特定的焦点深度,我们开发了一种新型的TBP优化方法。我们将问题提出为非线性最小二乘问题,以最大程度地减少与一组延迟相对应的TBP之间的差异,而所需的差异为2D矩形形状,以沿梁轴方向拉长。为了定量评估结果,我们根据主叶宽度,侧叶水平和中央线功率定义了三个质量指标。通过我们的合成软件模拟获得的结果表明,相对于经典的焦距模式,主叶宽度在整个深度范围内更加强烈和均匀,并且我们优化的延迟曲线导致在不同焦点深度处的标准延迟曲线结合在一起。所提出的方法在ARFI弹性图中的应用显示出沿所需轴的超声能量浓度的改善。
Ultrasound imaging is extensively employed in clinical settings due to its non-ionizing nature and real-time capabilities. The beamformer represents a crucial component of an ultrasound machine, playing a significant role in shaping the ultimate quality of the reconstructed image. Therefore, Transmit Beam Pattern (TBP) optimization is an important task in medical ultrasound, but state-of-the-art TBP optimization has well-known drawbacks like non-uniform beam width over depth, presence of significant side lobes, and quick energy drop out after the focal depth. To overcome these limitations, we developed a novel optimization approach for TBP by focusing the analysis on its narrowband approximation, particularly suited for Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) elastography, and considering transmit delays as free variables instead of linked to a specific focal depth. We formulate the problem as a non linear Least Squares problem to minimize the difference between the TBP corresponding to a set of delays and the desired one, modeled as a 2D rectangular shape elongated in the direction of the beam axis. In order to quantitatively evaluate the results, we define three quality metrics based on main lobe width, side lobe level, and central line power. Results obtained by our synthetic software simulation show that the main lobe width is considerably more intense and uniform over the whole depth range with respect to classical focalized Beam Patterns, and our optimized delay profile results in a combination of standard delay profiles at different focal depths. The application of the proposed method to ARFI elastography shows improvements in the concentration of the ultrasound energy along a desired axis.