An improved implementation of block matching for motion estimation in ultrasound imaging

Autor(es)

Cardoso, Fernando Mitsuyama ; Furuie, Sergio Shiguemi ; Duric, N ; Heyde, B

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: MEDICAL IMAGING 2017: ULTRASONIC IMAGING AND TOMOGRAPHY; v. 10139, p. 13-pg., 2017-01-01.

Resumo

Ultrasound elastography has become an important procedure that provides information about the tissue dynamics and may help on the detection of tissue abnormalities. Therefore, motion estimation in a sequence of ultrasound acquisition is crucial to the quality of this information. We propose a novel algorithm to perform speckle tracking, which consists in an implementation of 2D Block Matching with two enhancements: sub-pixel linear interpolation and displacement propagation, which are able to increase resolution, reduce computation time and prevent kernel mismatching errors. This method does not require any additional hardware and provide real-time information. The proposed technique was evaluated using four different numerical phantoms and its results were compared with the results from standard 2D block matching and optical flow. The proposed method outperformed the other two methods, providing an average error of 0.98 pixels, while standard 2D block matching and optical flow presented an average error of 2.50 and 10.03 pixels, respectively. The proposed algorithm was also assessed with four different physical phantoms and a qualitative comparison showed that the proposed technique presented results that were compatible to the results from the built-in elastography mode of the ultrasound equipment (Ultrasonix Touch). (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 14/24790-3 - Investigação de novas técnicas de elastografia quantitativa
• Beneficiário: Fernando Mitsuyama Cardoso
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado