Effects of Beamforming Techniques on Quality of Ultrasound Computed Tomography Images Publisher



Solgi R^{1, 2} ; Ghadiri H^{1, 3} Show Affiliations
Source: Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering Published:2022

Abstract

Background: In body tissues, tumors generally have different speeds of sound (SOS) than normal tissues. In this respect, ultrasound computed tomography (UCT) can generate a cross-sectional SOS map as an innovative ultrasound imaging method. This technique can produce images with a resolution of millimeters and a high signal-to-noise ratio. Objective: This study aimed to improve UCT image quality without increasing breast cancer screening and diagnosis time. Material and Methods: In this analytical study, a ring-shaped UCT breast imag­ing system was simulated using the K-wave toolbox of MATLAB. The system has a 20 cm diameter and 256 ultrasonic piezoelectrics placed in the ring’s circumference. Different beamforming techniques imaged two designed phantoms (i.e., resolution and contrast), and the resolution and contrast to noise ratio (CNR) were calculated. Results: The results of resolution phantom imaging without any beamforming showed that only bars with the value of 0.125 and 0.167 lp/mm were distinguishable, and the 0.1 bars were not recognizable in the imaging. In addition, increasing the number of transmit­ters led to no noticeable change in resolution for 0.125 and 0.167 lp/mm bars. In all beam­forming techniques for imaging the contrast phantom, the CNR parameter up to an object with a diameter of 8 mm increases with increasing diameter without any change. Conclusion: The beamforming technique using three simultaneous transmitters im­proved the resolution by about 1 mm compared to the normal strategy. In addition to high-contrast images, beamforming with 9 simultaneous transmitters led to a preferable tech­nique. © Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering