Frame-to-frame statistics of real-time strain images

Assesses the second order statistical properties of strain images with respect to the temporal direction. Successively acquired strain images in a real-time or similar off-line strain imaging system are correlated. This can be described by a covariance function, which is investigated in this paper by simulations. We determine how the statistical properties affect the choice of the frame-rate in a real-time strain imaging system and furthermore the effect of temporal filtering of strain images is discussed. The first in vivo real-time strain images of the prostate have been presented