A Locally Adaptive Phase Aberration Correction (LAPAC) Method for Synthetic Aperture Sequences

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Ultrasound Technology

Background:

• Phase aberration in ultrasound imaging degrades image quality due to variations in sound speed within tissues.
• Conventional phase aberration correction (cPAC) methods, often using near-field models, have limited effectiveness in complex tissue environments.
• Improved ultrasound image quality is crucial for accurate clinical diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate a novel locally adaptive phase aberration correction (LAPAC) method for enhancing ultrasound image quality.
• To compare the performance of LAPAC against conventional phase aberration correction (cPAC) and uncorrected ultrasound images.
• To assess the efficacy of LAPAC in simulated, experimental, and in vivo ultrasound scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Developed a locally adaptive phase aberration correction (LAPAC) method utilizing synthetic aperture techniques.
• Tested LAPAC through full-wave simulations of human abdominal wall models.
• Validated LAPAC using experimental tissue aberrators and in vivo carotid ultrasound images, comparing it with cPAC.

Main Results:

• LAPAC demonstrated an average of 1 to 2 dB higher contrast compared to cPAC.
• Ultrasound images corrected with LAPAC showed significant enhancements of 3 to 7 dB over uncorrected images.
• LAPAC effectively improved image quality in simulated, experimental, and in vivo conditions.

Conclusions:

• Locally adaptive phase aberration correction (LAPAC) offers a viable approach to enhance ultrasound image quality.
• LAPAC provides superior performance over conventional methods, especially under clinically relevant aberrating conditions.
• This method holds potential for improving diagnostic capabilities in ultrasound examinations.