Ultrasound speckle reduction using harmonic oscillator models

A speckle reduction algorithm called the harmonic imaging (HI) algorithm is presented. It is based on a multicomponent scattering model for medical ultrasonics. The backscattered ultrasound quadrature signal is modeled as the sum of three components after demodulation. The first component represents nonresolvable diffuse scatterers, while the second component represents subresolvable quasi-periodic scatterers. The third component represents resolvable quasi-periodic scatterers and mirroring surfaces. Since the second component gives rise to the most long range destructive interference effects it is eliminated in the HI algorithm to reduce speckle. Due to its slow spatial variation, it can be almost completely eliminated simply by differentiating the backscattered demodulated quadrature signal. Lissajous-like figures are observed in complex plots of the signals from ultrasound beams going through tissues with quasi-periodic components and sometimes in areas with only diffuse scatterers. Therefore the sum of the complex signals from the resolvable and nonresolvable scatterers within a resolution cell is modeled by two orthogonal and independent harmonic oscillators. The estimated, total energy of these two oscillators determines the gray level value of the HI image within the resolution cell. The HI images produced using radio frequency data from a phantom and from tissues in vivo are more blurred than ordinary envelope images, but the signal to noise ratio and tissue contrast were higher for the HI images.<<ETX>>