Clinical evaluation of real-time phase-aberration correction system [medical ultrasound]

We have developed a phase-aberration correction system that correlates signals in real time. In this paper we evaluate the clinical performance of the system in vivo. This system 1) constructs a cross-sectional image and, 2) calculates the correlation of signals at neighboring sensor elements. Both 1) and 2) are carried out in real time. The system was used for imaging of living tissue. First the beam was formed using initial focus delay settings and a real-time cross-sectional image was constructed. The correlation between neighboring signals was calculated simultaneously with the beam formation and the time difference between the pairs of signals was acquired. The time difference was then used to compensate for the initial delay. The image of the living tissue was substantially improved after the compensation. A further experiment is in progress to collect a statistically significant number of clinical results