Relationship between transmission/reception conditions of high-frequency plane wave compounding and evaluation accuracy of extended amplitude envelope statistics

Abstract

In previous studies, Double-Nakagami (DN) model, which is an amplitude envelope statistics method of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) was proposed for fatty liver evaluation, and the possibility of fatty property evaluation was suggested from the studies using a single concave transducer and rat livers. In this paper, five high-frequency linear array probes were used to investigate for clinical application. After confirmation of the influence of the sound field characteristics of the system and transmission/reception conditions on evaluation accuracy, QUS parameters were evaluated with DN model and other basic statistical models on fatty liver mimicking phantoms and rat livers. Correlations between fat gain and multiple QUS parameters were confirmed, suggesting that the combination of high-frequency linear array probes and a DN model may be a highly robust method for quantifying fatty liver.