Use of Nakagami Statistics and Empirical Mode Decomposition for Ultrasound Tissue Characterization by a Nonfocused Transducer

摘要: The Nakagami parameter associated with the distribution estimated from ultrasonic back- scattered signals reflects scatterer concentration in a tissue. A nonfocused transducer does not allow tissue characterization based on parameter. This paper proposes new method called noise-assisted empirical mode decomposition of noisy backscattered echoes to quantifica- tion data obtained using transducer. To explore practical feasibility proposed method, current study performed experiments phantoms and measurements rat livers invitro without fibrosis induction. results show that makes it possible use classify different concentrations stages liver rats more accurately than when techniques echo intensity conventional However, have meanings: former represents statistics unresolvable scatterers, whereas latter is stronger resolvable scatterers or local inhomogeneity caused by aggregation. (E-mail: mechang@gate.sinica.edu.tw; mcho1215@ntu.edu.tw) 2009 World Federation for Ultrasound Medicine & Biology.