Analysis of speckle in ultrasound images using fractional order statistics and the homodyned k-distribution

✍ Scribed by Richard W. Prager; Andrew H. Gee; Graham M. Treece; Laurence H. Berman

• Book ID: 104263467
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 475 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0041-624X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0041-624x(02)00104-x

✦ Synopsis

It is necessary to identify speckled regions in ultrasound images to control adaptive speckle suppression algorithms, for tissue characterisation, and to estimate the elevational separation of B-scans by speckle decorrelation. Previous authors have proposed classification techniques based on second order powers of the homodyned k-distribution, or lower order powers of the more limited k-distribution. In this paper we explore the speckle discrimination properties of statistics based on arbitrary powers of the ultrasound echo envelope signal using a combination of simulations and theoretical results from the homodyned k-distribution. We conclude that statistics based on powers less than one are surprisingly less effective than some higher powers. A simple discriminant function for speckle is evaluated quantitatively in simulation and qualitatively on sample B-scan images.