Higher order versus second order statistics in ultrasound image deconvolution

We recently proposed a method for the estimation of imaging distortions associated with ultrasound images, based on the higher-order statistics (HOS) of radio frequency data. In this correspondence, we utilize the HOS-based estimated distortions to deconvolve ultrasound images of the breast. We also estimate imaging distortions based on the second-order statistics (SOS) of radio frequency ultrasound data and subsequently utilize them to deconvolve the same breast images. Both subjective and objective measures suggest that deconvolution with HOS-based distortion estimates led to significantly higher resolution gains as compared to the gains achieved when SOS-based distortion estimates were used.