A novel pulse-echo attenuation estimation technique

The ultrasonic attenuation characteristics or soft tissue may provide a useful parameter for tissue characterisation. Measurement of attenuation via transmission methods often proves impractical and a number of techniques exist for estimating its value from the one dimensional backscattered rf A-line signal. Such estimates do, however, suffer from a large variance due to effects such as interference between spatially overlapping echoes, and diffraction. It is therefore usual to average a (large) number of (partially) uncorrelated signal estimates in order to obtain a satisfactory SNR (signal to noise ratio). This paper presents preliminary results of a technique to provide a first order correction for effects. Thus significantly reducing the variance associated with the attenuation estimate