Motion artifacts of pulse inversion-based tissue harmonic imaging

Motion artifacts of the pulse inversion technique were studied for finite amplitude distortion-based harmonic imaging. Motion in both the axial and the lateral directions was considered. Two performance issues were investigated. One is the harmonic signal intensity relative to the fundamental intensity and the other is the potential image quality degradation resulting from spectral leakage. A one-dimensional (1-D) correlation-based correction scheme also was used to compensate for motion artifacts. Results indicated that the tissue harmonic signal is significantly affected by tissue motion. For axial motion, the tissue harmonic intensity decreases much more rapidly than with lateral motion. The fundamental signal increases for both axial and lateral motion. Thus, filtering is still required to remove the fundamental signal, even if the pulse inversion technique is applied. The motion also potentially decreases contrast resolution because of the uncancelled spectral leakage. Also, it was indicated that 1-D motion correction is not adequate if nonaxial motion is present.