平面波超声成像中的波束合成方法研究进展*

平面波成像通过单次全孔径发射-接收即可获取整幅图像,将成像帧频显著地提升至1000帧/秒以上。然而,平面波成像过程中发射的非聚焦波束将导致回波信号信噪比降低,进而使图像的分辨率和对比度变差。通过多角度相干复合成像技术可以改善平面波成像的图像质量,但是会以牺牲帧频为代价。因此研究人员们开始将新型波束合成技术引入平面波成像中,例如自适应波束合成、基于逆问题求解的波束合成及基于深度学习的波束合成方法等,以期实现图像质量和成像帧频间更好的权衡。该文综述了平面波成像中的新型波束合成方法领域的研究进展,并对该应用进行了总结和展望。

Research progress of beamforming methods in plane-wave ultrasound imaging

Plane wave imaging (PWI) can obtain whole image with a single full-aperture ultrasound transmit and receive to significantly increase the frame rate to more than 1000 frames/second. However, the unfocused beam used in PWI greatly reduces the signal-to-noise ratio of the received echoes as well as the resolution and contrast of the image. Coherent compounding has been proposed to improve the image quality of PWI; however, it sacrifices the frame rate. To achieve a better tradeoff between the image quality and frame rate, novel beamforming methods have been introduced into PWI, such as adaptive beamforming, inverse problem based and deep learning based beamforming methods. This review article summarizes the research progress of novel beamforming methods in PWI and discusses the difficulties and prospects.