A Method for Quantitative Ultrasonic Backscatter Estimates in the Presence of Phase Distortion

A method has been developed which can predict the backscatter properties of biological tissues from single amplitude spectra. Backscatter analysis from single spectra, based on the ratio of the Fourier transforms, is strongly influenced by the amplitude fluctuations, due to the inhomogeneous nature of biological tissues. The theoretical basis for the developed method is that the tissue produces an asymmetry in the reference amplitude spectrum related to the power law frequency dependence of the backscatter coefficient. Therefore, an estimation of the spectrum asymmetry has potential for estimating backscatter indexes. This method has been tested by using computer simulation and experimental measurements and it has shown a strong rejection to noise effects.