Estimation of the Optimal Maximum Beam Angle and Angular Increment for Normal and Shear Strain Estimation

In the current practice of ultrasound elastography, only the axial component of the displacement vector is estimated and used to produce strain images. A method was recently proposed by our group to estimate both the axial and lateral components of a displacement vector using RF echo signal data acquired along multiple angular insonification directions of the ultrasound beam. Previous work has demonstrated that it is important to choose appropriate values for the maximum beam angle and angular increment to achieve optimal performance with this technique. In this paper, we present error propagation analysis using the least-square fitting process for the optimization of the angular increment and the maximum beam steered angle. Ultrasound simulations are performed to corroborate the theoretical prediction of the optimal values for the maximum beam angle and angular increment. Selection of the optimal parameters depends on system parameters, such as center frequency and aperture size. For typical system parameters, the optimal maximum beam angle is around 10deg for axial strain estimation and around 15deg for lateral strain estimation. The optimal angular increment is around 4deg -6deg, which indicates that only five to seven beam angles are required for this strain-tensor estimation technique.