This is the most important part of an ultrasound machine: a beamformer. People use beamformers to make images look better when they are reconstructed. Filtered Delay Multiply and Sum (F-DMAS) is a non-linear beamforming technique used to make up for the flaws of DAS. It was compared to DAS and F-DMAS in terms of how well they worked. The better axial and lateral resolution, contrast ratios, contrast ratios with noise, and contrast ratios with noise were some of the things it had more of. The method could also be used to delay and sum (DAS).
Key Highlight:
- Filtered Delay optimally-weighted Multiply and Sum (F-DowMAS) was proposed by Mr. Anudeep Vayyeti and Prof. Arun Kumar Thittai from the Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
- It was discovered that this technique might be extended to delay and sum (DAS) and improve the performance of the latest non-linear beamformer.
- The performance of DAS and F-DMAS was compared.
- It outperformed DAS and F-DMAS in axial, lateral, and contrast-to-noise ratios, whereas DAS outperformed both.
- It uses state-of-the-art computational methods to improve imaging contrast, resolution, and contrast-to-noise ratio, among other things.
Ultrasound imaging is used in a lot of medical situations. This is the most important part of an ultrasound machine: a beamformer. People use beamformers to make images look better when they are reconstructed. If you want to get a high-quality image, the main lobe of the point target should be small, and the side lobes should be smaller.
The Delay and Sum (DAS) beamformer is the most common method used in ultrasound imaging because it is easy to use. However, it has a low image resolution and less ability to block off-axis noise. So, people have tried to get a clearer picture by changing the beamformer.
F-DMAS, which stands for Filtered Delay Multiply and Sum, is a non-linear beamforming technique. It was created to make up for some of the drawbacks of the delay and sum beamformer. With the F-DMAS beamformer, the reconstructed image resolution was clearer, and other techniques like the double-stage DMAS and the Baseband-DMAS were also made, which made the reconstructed image clearer. This is true, but the contrast to noise ratio was limited in these ways. Recently, we came up with two new non-linear beamforming techniques called Filtered Delay Weight Multiply and Sum (F-DwMAS) and Filtered Delay Euclidian-weighted Multiply and Sum (F-DewMAS). We used these techniques to push state of the art by applying them to the Synthetic Aperture (SA) technique, which is only recently becoming popular. However, most ultrasound imaging scanners use the Conventional Focused Beamforming (CFB) method. CFB is a good technique because it doesn’t need a lot of memory to store data and can look inside tissues deep inside. Because of these benefits, CFB has become more and more common and useful. However, CFB has a problem with actually using the transmit beam pattern. For different transmissions, the beam must be steered in a different direction. This is because there aren’t enough things when you get close to the edges. As a result, it is well known that CFB produces good images only around the focal point. Operators are taught to keep the target of interest in this area as they scan.
In the city of Chennai, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras has a new beamforming technique called Filtered Delay optimally-weighted Multiply and Sum (F-DowMAS). This technique can solve the problem of transmit beams and provide a clear and high-quality reconstructed image across the whole image width, which is what this work is all about.
Even though the main goal was to improve the performance of the new non-linear beamformer, it was also found that this technique could be used to delay and sum (DAS) too. It was compared to DAS and F-DMAS in terms of how well they worked. If you look at the axial resolution, lateral resolution, contrast ratio, and contrast to noise ratio, F-DowMAS was found to be the best. DAS was found to be the worst. Another thing that made F-DowMAS the best was its picture quality.
People in India: Prof. Chandra Sekhar Seelamantula from the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, Bengaluru, said that the authors did a great job and should keep up the good work! People often use ultrasound imaging, which doesn’t use radiation, in the medical setting. If you use sophisticated computer tools, you can make images that look better and have better lateral/axial resolution. This has happened in the past. It’s up-to-date computer work by Prof. Arun Thittai and his team to improve the resolution, contrast, and contrast-to-noise ratio. These can be used to judge how well an ultrasound system works. Prof. Arun Thittai’s system is a lot better than the benchmark methods. The subjective performance is also better, and this can be seen in the visual quality of the images that have been reconstructed. Prof. Arun Thittai’s new Nature Scientific Reports paper has strong evidence on phantom and real data. A high-quality picture will go a long way in making a clinical diagnosis. Prof. Arun Thittai’s paper discusses a computer-based method that doesn’t change how images are taken. Thus, it could be used with the scanners that already exist.
#TechTuesday
— IIT Madras (@iitmadras) February 15, 2022
A research team from @iitmadras has proposed a new beamforming technique that has the potential to be integrated into existing ultrasonic scanners.https://t.co/33bubOoW4fhttps://t.co/bMPOzjM7Io pic.twitter.com/SCaAmzS9i7
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