Diffraction correction methods for insertion ultrasound attenuation estimation

Diffraction effects in acoustic ultrasound attenuation coefficient estimation using an insertion technique are described. The estimation error produced by diffraction is characterized as a function of distance and nominal attenuation values. Two methods for correcting for the diffraction effect, termed the theoretical diffraction correction and experimental diffraction correction techniques, respectively, are presented. Experimental validation of the two techniques, using two different sets of ultrasound measurements obtained with 1-MHz and 500-kHz transducer pairs, respectively, is also presented. Significant improvement in the accuracy of the acoustic attenuation coefficient is demonstrated for both techniques.