Lei He, Zhaohui Liu, Yuxin Cai, Qiude Zhang, Liang Zhou, Jing Yuan, Yang Xu, Mingyue Ding, Ming Yuchi, Wu Qiu
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Reflection Ultrasound Computed Tomography (UCT) is gaining prominence as an essential instrument for breast cancer screening. However, reflection UCT quality is often compromised by the variability in sound speed across breast tissue. Traditionally, reflection UCT utilizes the Delay and Sum (DAS) algorithm, where the Time of Flight significantly affects the coherence of the reflected radio frequency (RF) data, based on an oversimplified assumption of uniform sound speed. This study introduces three meticulously engineered modules that leverage the spatial correlation of receiving arrays to improve the coherence of RF data and enable more effective summation. These modules include the self-supervised blind RF data segment block (BSegB) and the state-space model-based strong reflection prediction block (SSM-SRP), followed by a polarity-based adaptive replacing refinement (PARR) strategy to suppress sidelobe noise caused by aperture narrowing. To assess the effectiveness of our method, we utilized standard image quality metrics, including Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM), and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). Additionally, coherence factor (CF) and variance (Var) were employed to verify the method's ability to enhance signal coherence at the RF data level. The findings reveal that our approach greatly improves performance, achieving an average PSNR of 19.64 dB, an average SSIM of 0.71, and an average RMSE of 0.10, notably under conditions of sparse transmission. The conducted experimental analyses affirm the superior performance of our framework compared to alternative enhancement strategies, including adaptive beamforming methods and deep learning-based beamforming approaches.
期刊介绍:
IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control includes the theory, technology, materials, and applications relating to: (1) the generation, transmission, and detection of ultrasonic waves and related phenomena; (2) medical ultrasound, including hyperthermia, bioeffects, tissue characterization and imaging; (3) ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and piezomagnetic materials, including crystals, polycrystalline solids, films, polymers, and composites; (4) frequency control, timing and time distribution, including crystal oscillators and other means of classical frequency control, and atomic, molecular and laser frequency control standards. Areas of interest range from fundamental studies to the design and/or applications of devices and systems.