DERIVING ATTENUATION PROFILES FROM RAW DIGITAL ULTRASONOGRAPHIC DATA

Antonín Míšek - Jiří Jan

   The objective of the paper is to estimate automatically one-dimensional attenuation profiles on isolated "rays'' forming ultrasonic images. The estimates are entirely based on raw digital ultrasonographic data, without reference to any a-priori knowledge on the tissue character. Using a common model of ultrasound propagation in homogeneous media, the presented "layered'' formulation allowed for simplified, thus manageable estimation of the attenuation profiles. The derived model has been discretised and the least squares method used for computing vectors of unknown coefficients of attenuation and dispersion. The results of analysing real ultrasonographic data, as presented on included figures, are rather promising, in spite of the mentioned simplifications.

Keywords: ultrasonography, image processing, raw ultrasound data, attenuation map, ultrasound attenuation estimation

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