A robust real-time speckle tracking algorithm for ultrasonic elasticity imaging

In this study, we report a robust speckle tracking algorithm specifically designed for quasi-static ultrasound-based elasticity imaging. The proposed algorithm is a novel combination of our regularized speckle tracking algorithm and a competitive (i.e. quality-based) seeding strategy proposed by Chen et al. Through processing of in vivo breast and thyroid tissue data, our findings demonstrated that the new algorithm provides more consistent displacement estimates than our previous real-time algorithm for in vivo clinical data. Our preliminary results support that this novel algorithm might potentially make ultrasound-based elasticity imaging more easy to use by providing high quality strain imaging data in real-time.