A preliminary study of the mean scatterer spacing estimation from pellets using wavelet-based cepstral analysis

Abstract

Ultrasonic backscatteredsignals contain information regarding the scatterer structures of the imaged biological tissues; a uniform scatterer distribution could be represented by periodicities in the backscattered signals. This work aims to characterize these scatterer periodicities using wavelet improved cepstral analysis. This technique was tested on simulated ultrasound signals, where the periodicity was clearly visible. Simulation results indicate that this technique can effectively determine the value of the scatterer spacing. The technique was then tested on a HT-29 cell pellet, where the estimated scatterer spacing was found to be 17.67 ± 3.85 μm. Future work includes improving the technique with the aim of accurately estimating the mean scatterer spacing in tissues.