Ultrasound B Mode Imaging Beamforming And Image Formation Techniques

Ultrasound medical imaging stands out among the other diagnostic imaging modalities for its patient-friendliness, high temporal resolution, low cost, and absence of ionizing radiation. On the other hand, it may still suffer from limited detail level, low signal-to-noise ratio, and narrow field-of-view. In the last decade, new beamforming and image reconstruction techniques have emerged which aim at improving resolution, contrast, and clutter suppression, especially in difficult-to-image patients. Nevertheless, achieving a higher image quality is of the utmost importance in diagnostic ultrasound medical imaging, and further developments are still indispensable. From this point of view, a crucial role can be played by novel beamforming techniques as well as by non-conventional image formation techniques (e.g., advanced transmission strategies, and compounding, coded, and harmonic imaging). This Special Issue includes novel contributions on both ultrasound beamforming and image formation techniques, particularly addressed at improving B-mode image quality and related diagnostic content. This indeed represents a hot topic in the ultrasound imaging community, and further active research in this field is expected, where many challenges still persist.

Ultrasound medical imaging stands out among the other diagnostic imaging modalities for its patient-friendliness, high temporal resolution, low cost, and absence of ionizing radiation. On the other hand, it may still suffer from limited detail level, low signal-to-noise ratio, and narrow field-of-view. In the last decade, new beamforming and image reconstruction techniques have emerged which aim at improving resolution, contrast, and clutter suppression, especially in difficult-to-image patients. Nevertheless, achieving a higher image quality is of the utmost importance in diagnostic ultrasound medical imaging, and further developments are still indispensable. From this point of view, a crucial role can be played by novel beamforming techniques as well as by non-conventional image formation techniques (e.g., advanced transmission strategies, and compounding, coded, and harmonic imaging). This Special Issue includes novel contributions on both ultrasound beamforming and image formation techniques, particularly addressed at improving B-mode image quality and related diagnostic content. This indeed represents a hot topic in the ultrasound imaging community, and further active research in this field is expected, where many challenges still persist.

Essentials of Ultrasound Imaging offers a fast track introduction to the science, physics and technology of ultrasound imaging systems. Uniquely, principles are revealed by examples from software simulation programs, thus allowing the reader to engage with the concepts having minimal mathematical background. The material is organized around a functional block diagram which is, in turn, related to physical processes and implementations of the functional concepts on commercial and research imaging systems. Examples from a Verasonics Vantage Research Ultrasound System provide unparalleled insight into each step of ultrasound image creation including signal processing, transducer operation, different types of beamforming, and image formation. The last chapter examines the potential and capabilities of ultrasound imaging and measurement for future applications. With a thorough grounding of the physics and methods of ultrasound imaging, this book is suitable for students learning about ultrasound and researchers involved, or starting out in, ultrasound research development who might not have the background to understand the latest developments. Gives an understanding of wave propagation, piezoelectric transducers, beam focusing, Doppler imaging of fluid flow, types of ultrasound systems, and real-time image formation and resolution Explains basic mathematical and scientific concepts underlying ultrasound imaging and physics Follows the passage of pulse-echo waveforms through the changes made by wave propagation, array beam formation, absorption, and system processing to image formation Describes the concepts written in MATLAB® that are illustrated by numerous examples from unique simulations of physics, processing, and imaging and from experiments and signals within an ultrasound research system Presents an accompanying simulator software package, in executable form, designed to demonstrate concepts with minimal mathematical background, together with a curriculum of hands-on experiments using an ultrasound research system, both available from Verasonics

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging" that was published in Applied Sciences

This book deals with the concept of medical ultrasound imaging and discusses array signal processing in ultrasound. Signal processing using different beamforming techniques in order to achieve a desirable reconstructed image and, consequently, obtain useful information about the imaging medium is the main focus of this book. In this regard, the principles of image reconstruction techniques in ultrasound imaging are fully described, and the required processing steps are completely expanded and analyzed in detail. Simulation results to compare the performance of different beamformers are also included in this book to visualize their differences to the reader. Other advanced techniques in the field of medical ultrasound data processing, as well as their corresponding recent achievements, are also presented in this book. Simply put, in this book, processing of medical ultrasound data from different aspects and acquiring information from them in different manners are covered and organized in different chapters. Before going through the detailed explanation in each chapter, it gives the reader an overview of the considered issue and focuses his\her mind on the challenge ahead. The contents of the book are also presented in such a way that they are easy for the reader to understand. This book is recommended for researchers who study medical ultrasound data processing.

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Ultrasound has recently taken an explosive growth for better safer, economic, mobile and high quality healthcare. This technology is very appealing for medical applications because it is non-ionizing, non-invasive and it is available in most of the medical and clinical facilities. Its low cost, when compared with other medical image modalities, makes it one of the preferred tools for medical monitoring, follow-up and diagnosis. Besides the traditional fields of Cardiology and Obstetrics, where it is extensively used for long time, it has became also very useful in the diagnosis of diseases of the prostate, liver and coronaries and carotids atherosclerosis. However, Ultrasound images present poor quality, very low signal to noise ratio and a lot of artifacts. The extraction of useful information from Ultrasound data for diagnosis is a challenge task that makes this medical image modality a very active field of research. The difficulties are being overcome and novel and advanced methods are being proposed for detection, characterization and segmentation of abnormalities in several organs. In fact, Ultrasound application range is vast, covering almost all organs of the human body, including the brain where Tran-cranial Doppler Ultrasound is very important to assess the brain vasculature. This book presents some of the recent advances in Ultrasound imaging technology covering several organs and techniques in a Biomedical Engineering (BME) perspective. The focus of the book is in the algorithms, methodologies and systems developed by multidisciplinary research teams of engineers and physicians for Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) purposes. Cardiovascular and Cancer, the most common life-threatening diseases in western countries, are two of the most important topics focused in the book. However, other advanced issues are also presented such as Intravascular Ultrasound, 3D US and Ultrasound in Computer-Aided Surgery (CAS). Some chapters are direct contributions from medical research groups where Ultrasound has also received great attention in the last decade. By this, new techniques based on Ultrasound were introduced in the clinical practice for diagnosis and therapeutics, mainly in hospital facilities.

Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging provides a unified description of the physical principles of ultrasound imaging, signal processing, systems and measurements. This comprehensive reference is a core resource for both graduate students and engineers in medical ultrasound research and design. With continuing rapid technological development of ultrasound in medical diagnosis, it is a critical subject for biomedical engineers, clinical and healthcare engineers and practitioners, medical physicists, and related professionals in the fields of signal and image processing. The book contains 17 new and updated chapters covering the fundamentals and latest advances in the area, and includes four appendices, 450 figures (60 available in color on the companion website), and almost 1,500 references. In addition to the continual influx of readers entering the field of ultrasound worldwide who need the broad grounding in the core technologies of ultrasound, this book provides those already working in these areas with clear and comprehensive expositions of these key new topics as well as introductions to state-of-the-art innovations in this field. Enables practicing engineers, students and clinical professionals to understand the essential physics and signal processing techniques behind modern imaging systems as well as introducing the latest developments that will shape medical ultrasound in the future Suitable for both newcomers and experienced readers, the practical, progressively organized applied approach is supported by hands-on MATLAB® code and worked examples that enable readers to understand the principles underlying diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound Covers the new important developments in the use of medical ultrasound: elastography and high-intensity therapeutic ultrasound. Many new developments are comprehensively reviewed and explained, including aberration correction, acoustic measurements, acoustic radiation force imaging, alternate imaging architectures, bioeffects: diagnostic to therapeutic, Fourier transform imaging, multimode imaging, plane wave compounding, research platforms, synthetic aperture, vector Doppler, transient shear wave elastography, ultrafast imaging and Doppler, functional ultrasound and viscoelastic models

Up-to-Date Details on Using Ultrasound Imaging to Help Diagnose Various Diseases Due to improvements in image quality and the reduced cost of advanced features, ultrasound imaging is playing a greater role in the diagnosis and image-guided intervention of a wide range of diseases. Ultrasound Imaging and Therapy highlights the latest advances in using ultrasound imaging in image-guided interventions and ultrasound-based therapy. The book presents current and emerging techniques, identifies trends in the use of ultrasound imaging, and addresses technical and computational problems that need to be solved. The book is organized into three sections. The first section covers advances in technology, including transducers (2-D, 3-D, and 4-D), beamformers, 3-D imaging systems, and blood velocity estimation systems. The second section focuses on diagnostic applications, such as elastography, quantitative techniques for therapy monitoring and diagnostic imaging, and ultrasound tomography. The final section explains the use of ultrasound in image-guided interventions for image-guided biopsy and brain imaging.