A Displacement Estimated Method for Real Time Tissue Ultrasound Elastography

• Published in: Mobile networks and applications Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 2014 - 2023
• Main Authors: Li, Hong-an, Zhang, Min, Yu, Keping, Qi, Xin, Tong, Jianfeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Communications Engineering; Computer Communication Networks; Displacement; Electrical Engineering; Engineering; IT in Business; Medical imaging; Mutation; Networks; Phase matching; Real time; Robustness; Search methods; Soft tissues; Ultrasonic imaging; Displacement estimated; Ultrasound elastography; Phase-zero search; Block-matching
• ISSN: 1383-469X; 1572-8153
• DOI: 10.1007/s11036-021-01735-3

As an important means of medical imaging, elastic imaging is an indispensable part of mobile telemedicine. Ultrasound elastography has become a research hotspot because it can accurately measure soft tissue lesions. Displacement estimation is the most important step in ultrasound elastography. At present, the phase zero search method is an accurate and fast displacement estimation method. However, when the displacement exceeds 1/4 wavelength, it is invalid. The accuracy of block matching method is not high, but it is suitable for large displacement, so it can overcome this shortcoming. It is worth noting that the quality-guided block matching method has good robustness under complex mutation conditions. It can provide prior knowledge to increase the robustness of the phase-zero search under large displacement conditions. So we propose a novel displacement estimation method for real time tissue ultrasound elastography, which combines the quality-guided block matching method and the phase-zero search method. The experimental results show that this method is more accurate, faster and robust than other displacement estimation methods.