Frame rate improvement in ultrafast coherent plane wave compounding.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Ultrasound Technology
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Coherent Plane Wave Compounding (CPWC) enhances ultrasound imaging frame rates but faces a trade-off between speed and image quality.
• Minimizing emissions in CPWC is crucial for improving frame rates without compromising diagnostic image fidelity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an efficient method for reducing the number of emissions in CPWC.
• To improve frame rates in ultrafast ultrasound imaging while preserving image quality.
• To optimize angle sampling and image reconstruction for enhanced performance.

Main Methods:

• Down-sampling the angle interval using specific sampling factors to create reduced emission subsets.
• Determining optimal angle intervals based on the reference beampattern (full plane wave set).
• Modifying the image reconstruction by convolving Delay-and-Sum beamformed images from the subsets.

Main Results:

• The proposed method significantly reduces required emissions (e.g., 16 emissions for PICMUS data, a 4.6x reduction).
• Image quality is maintained, with gCNR values of 0.98 for the proposed method versus 0.97 for the reference case in in-vivo datasets.
• Demonstrated efficiency in frame rate improvement while preserving image quality.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively enhances frame rates in ultrafast ultrasound imaging by minimizing emissions.
• Image quality comparable to the reference case is achieved with significantly fewer emissions.
• This approach offers a practical solution for high-frame-rate ultrasound applications requiring high fidelity.