The statistics of speckle patterns in ultrasound images have potential for tissue characterization. In "fully developed speckle" from many random scatterers, the amplitude is widely recognized as possessing a Rayleigh distribution. This study examines how scattering populations and signal processing can produce non-Rayleigh distributions. The first order speckle statistics are shown to depend on random scatterer density and the amplitude and spacing of added periodic scatterers. Envelope detection, amplifier compression, and signal bandwidth are also shown to cause distinct changes in the signal distribution.
The statistics of speckle patterns in ultrasound images have potential for tissue characterization. In "fully developed speckle" from many random scatterers, the amplitude is widely recognized as possessing a Rayleigh distribution. This study examines how scattering populations and signal processing can produce non-Rayleigh distributions. The first order speckle statistics are shown to depend on random scatterer density and the amplitude and spacing of added periodic scatterers. Envelope detection, amplifier compression, and signal bandwidth are also shown to cause distinct changes in the signal distribution.
The excess ultrasonic attenuation caused by adding glycogen and inorganic phosphate to liver homogenates has been studied to determine the underlying differences between attenuation coefficients of normal and diffusely diseased livers. Results show that glycogen has a higher than average specific absorption coefficient compared to other large molecular weight biomolecules. Since the glycogen content of liver can vary from 1%-10% of wet weight, this compound may have a major time-varying effect on the liver ultrasonic attenuation coefficient, even in normal subjects. In contrast, the excess attenuation of liver homogenate resulting from addition of inorganic phosphate was not significant at presumed physiological levels. The implications of these findings are discussed relative to tissue characterization efforts based on in vivo measurements of ultrasonic attenuation coefficients of liver.
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