Ultrasound Autofocusing: Common Midpoint Phase Error Optimization via Differentiable Beamforming

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Simson, Walter, Zhuang, Louise, Frey, Benjamin N., Sanabria, Sergio J., Dahl, Jeremy J., Hyun, Dongwoon
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Simson, Walter
Zhuang, Louise
Frey, Benjamin N.
Sanabria, Sergio J.
Dahl, Jeremy J.
Hyun, Dongwoon
author_facet Simson, Walter
Zhuang, Louise
Frey, Benjamin N.
Sanabria, Sergio J.
Dahl, Jeremy J.
Hyun, Dongwoon
contents In ultrasound imaging, propagation of an acoustic wavefront through heterogeneous media causes phase aberrations that degrade the coherence of the reflected wavefront, leading to reduced image resolution and contrast. Adaptive imaging techniques attempt to correct this phase aberration and restore coherence, leading to improved focusing of the image. We propose an autofocusing paradigm for aberration correction in ultrasound imaging by fitting an acoustic velocity field to pressure measurements, via optimization of the common midpoint phase error (CMPE), using a straight-ray wave propagation model for beamforming in diffusely scattering media. We show that CMPE induced by heterogeneous acoustic velocity is a robust measure of phase aberration that can be used for acoustic autofocusing. CMPE is optimized iteratively using a differentiable beamforming approach to simultaneously improve the image focus while estimating the acoustic velocity field of the interrogated medium. The approach relies solely on wavefield measurements using a straight-ray integral solution of the two-way time-of-flight without explicit numerical time-stepping models of wave propagation. We demonstrate method performance through in silico simulations, in vitro phantom measurements, and in vivo mammalian models, showing practical applications in distributed aberration quantification, correction, and velocity estimation for medical ultrasound autofocusing.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_03008
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ultrasound Autofocusing: Common Midpoint Phase Error Optimization via Differentiable Beamforming
Simson, Walter
Zhuang, Louise
Frey, Benjamin N.
Sanabria, Sergio J.
Dahl, Jeremy J.
Hyun, Dongwoon
Medical Physics
Image and Video Processing
In ultrasound imaging, propagation of an acoustic wavefront through heterogeneous media causes phase aberrations that degrade the coherence of the reflected wavefront, leading to reduced image resolution and contrast. Adaptive imaging techniques attempt to correct this phase aberration and restore coherence, leading to improved focusing of the image. We propose an autofocusing paradigm for aberration correction in ultrasound imaging by fitting an acoustic velocity field to pressure measurements, via optimization of the common midpoint phase error (CMPE), using a straight-ray wave propagation model for beamforming in diffusely scattering media. We show that CMPE induced by heterogeneous acoustic velocity is a robust measure of phase aberration that can be used for acoustic autofocusing. CMPE is optimized iteratively using a differentiable beamforming approach to simultaneously improve the image focus while estimating the acoustic velocity field of the interrogated medium. The approach relies solely on wavefield measurements using a straight-ray integral solution of the two-way time-of-flight without explicit numerical time-stepping models of wave propagation. We demonstrate method performance through in silico simulations, in vitro phantom measurements, and in vivo mammalian models, showing practical applications in distributed aberration quantification, correction, and velocity estimation for medical ultrasound autofocusing.
title Ultrasound Autofocusing: Common Midpoint Phase Error Optimization via Differentiable Beamforming
topic Medical Physics
Image and Video Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.03008