Title :
Ultrasound Elastography: A Dynamic Programming Approach
Author :
Rivaz, Hassan ; Boctor, Emad ; Foroughi, Pezhman ; Zellars, Richard ; Fichtinger, Gabor ; Hager, Gregory
Author_Institution :
Eng. Res. Center for Comput. Integrated Surg., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD
Abstract :
This paper introduces a 2D strain imaging technique based on minimizing a cost function using dynamic programming (DP). The cost function incorporates similarity of echo amplitudes and displacement continuity. Since tissue deformations are smooth, the incorporation of the smoothness into the cost function results in reduced decorrelation noise. As a result, the method generates high-quality strain images of freehand palpation elastography with up to 10% compression, showing that the method is more robust to signal decorrelation (caused by scatterer motion in high axial compression and nonaxial motions of the probe) in comparison to the standard correlation techniques. The method operates in less than 1 s and is thus also potentially suitable for real time elastography.
Keywords :
biological tissues; biomechanics; biomedical ultrasonics; deformation; dynamic programming; elastic moduli; dynamic programming; strain imaging; tissue deformations; ultrasound elastography; Capacitive sensors; Cost function; Decorrelation; Dynamic programming; Image coding; Image generation; Noise reduction; Noise robustness; Signal generators; Ultrasonic imaging; Dynamic programming; Freehand US; Real time strain imaging; Regularization; Ultrasound elastography; freehand ultrasound (US); real time strain imaging; regularization; ultrasound elastography; Algorithms; Elasticity Imaging Techniques; Humans; Image Enhancement; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; Phantoms, Imaging; Sensitivity and Specificity;
Journal_Title :
Medical Imaging, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMI.2008.917243