DocumentCode :
62352
Title :
Phase-based direct average strain estimation for elastography
Author :
Ara, Sharmin ; Mohsin, Faisal ; Alam, F. ; Rupa, Sharmin ; Lee, Soo ; Hasan, M.K. ; Awwal, Rayhana
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Bangladesh Univ. of Eng. & Technol. (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Volume :
60
Issue :
11
fYear :
2013
fDate :
Nov-13
Firstpage :
2266
Lastpage :
2283
Abstract :
In this paper, a phase-based direct average strain estimation method is developed. A mathematical model is presented to calculate axial strain directly from the phase of the zero-lag cross-correlation function between the windowed precompression and stretched post-compression analytic signals. Unlike phase-based conventional strain estimators, for which strain is computed from the displacement field, strain in this paper is computed in one step using the secant algorithm by exploiting the direct phase-strain relationship. To maintain strain continuity, instead of using the instantaneous phase of the interrogative window alone, an average phase function is defined using the phases of the neighboring windows with the assumption that the strain is essentially similar in a close physical proximity to the interrogative window. This method accounts for the effect of lateral shift but without requiring a prior estimate of the applied strain. Moreover, the strain can be computed both in the compression and relaxation phases of the applied pressure. The performance of the proposed strain estimator is analyzed in terms of the quality metrics elastographic signal-to-noise ratio (SNRe), elastographic contrast-to-noise ratio (CNRe), and mean structural similarity (MSSIM), using a finite element modeling simulation phantom. The results reveal that the proposed method performs satisfactorily in terms of all the three indices for up to 2.5% applied strain. Comparative results using simulation and experimental phantom data, and in vivo breast data of benign and malignant masses also demonstrate that the strain image quality of our method is better than the other reported techniques.
Keywords :
biological organs; biomedical ultrasonics; data compression; finite element analysis; image coding; medical image processing; physiological models; MSSIM; axial strain; benign masses; elastographic contrast-to-noise ratio; elastographic signal-to-noise ratio; finite element modeling; in vivo breast data; interrogative window; malignant masses; mathematical model; mean structural similarity; phase-based direct average strain estimation; phase-strain relationship; relaxation phases; strain image quality; stretched post-compression analytic signals; windowed post-compression; zero-lag cross-correlation function phase; Correlation; Estimation; Indexes; Noise; RF signals; Radio frequency; Strain; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Algorithms; Breast Neoplasms; Computer Simulation; Databases, Factual; Elasticity Imaging Techniques; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Mammography; Middle Aged; Models, Theoretical; Phantoms, Imaging; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; Young Adult;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0885-3010
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TUFFC.2013.6644732
Filename :
6644732
Link To Document :
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