Local tissue attenuation images based on pulsed-echo ultrasound scans

The original conventional B scan is traversed, one pixel at a time. In the vicinity of each pixel, a uniform area is determined and average attenuation is computed utilizing an extended modified Prony approach. B scans of tissue mimicking phantoms and in vivo human liver scans are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results show good agreement between estimated and known attenuation values. Clinical studies demonstrate significant potential of the technique, in particular for diagnosis of diffuse liver disease.