Multi-parameter inversion with the aid of particle velocity field reconstruction

Multi-parameter inversion for medical ultrasound leads to an improved tissue classification. In general, simultaneous reconstruction of volume density of mass and compressibility would require knowledge of the particle velocity field along with the pressure field. However, in practice the particle velocity field is not measured. Here, the authors propose a method for multi-parameter inversion where the particle velocity field is reconstructed from the measured pressure field. To this end, the measured pressure field is described using outward propagating Hankel functions. For a synthetic setup, it is shown that the reconstructed particle velocity field matches the forward modelled particle velocity field. Next, the reconstructed particle velocity field is used together with the synthetically measured pressure field to reconstruct density and compressibility profiles with the aid of contrast source inversion. Finally, comparing the reconstructed speed of sound profiles obtained via single-parameter versus multi-parameter inversion shows that multi-parameter outperforms single-parameter inversion with respect to accuracy and stability.