Spatial Coherence Beamforming with Multi-Line Transmission to Enhance the Contrast of Coherent Structures in Ultrasound Images Degraded by Acoustic Clutter

This work demonstrates that the combination of Multi-Line Transmission (MLT) and Short-Lag Spatial Coherence (SLSC) imaging improves the contrast of highly coherent structures within soft tissues, when compared to both traditional SLSC imaging and conventional Delay and Sum (DAS) beamforming. Experimental tests with small (i.e., 100 μm to 3 mm) targets embedded in homogeneous and heterogeneous backgrounds were conducted. DAS or SLSC images were reconstructed when implementing MLT with varying numbers of simultaneously transmitted beams. In images degraded by acoustic clutter, MLT SLSC achieved up to 34.1 dB better target contrast and up to 16 times higher frame-rates when compared to the more conventional single-line transmission SLSC images, with lateral resolution improvements as large as 38.2%. MLT SLSC thus represents a promising technique for clinical applications in which ultrasound visualization of highly coherent targets is required (e.g., breast microcalcifications, kidney stones, percutaneous biopsy needle tracking) and would otherwise be challenging due to the strong presence of acoustic clutter.