Constrained Adaptive Beamforming for Improved Contrast in Breast Ultrasound
Abstract
Ultrasonic imaging plays an important role as an adjunct to mammography, with an emerging role in breast cancer screening. Ultrasound's real-time nature, lack of ionizing radiation, and relative comfort for the patient make it an attractive imaging choice. Unfortunately, ultrasound image quality is often limited. We hypothesize that bright scatterers seriously degrade ultrasound images by introducing image clutter. In the breast bright off-axis echoes may originate from Cooper's ligaments, structured glandular tissue, calcification, fat-soft tissue interfaces, or other structures. While we initially proposed using a variant of the Frost Adaptive Beamformer to reduce clutter, we have since discovered that this technique is non-optimal for our application. Extensive literature reviews have led us to utilize a recently proposed method, Spatial Processing Optimized and Constrained (SPOC). In initial simulations this method not only dramatically reduces image clutter, but also yields super-resolution. We are actively refining this method while developing the experimental tools needed for in vivo testing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA443069
Entities
People
- William F. Walker
Organizations
- University of Virginia