TY - JOUR
T1 - Robust Short-Lag Spatial Coherence Imaging of Breast Ultrasound Data
T2 - Initial Clinical Results
AU - Wiacek, Alycen
AU - Rindal, Ole Marius Hoel
AU - Falomo, Eniola
AU - Myers, Kelly
AU - Fabrega-Foster, Kelly
AU - Harvey, Susan
AU - Bell, Muyinatu A.Lediju
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received August 3, 2018; accepted November 20, 2018. Date of publication November 27, 2018; date of current version March 14, 2019. This work was supported in part by the NIH under Grant R00-EB018994. (Corresponding author: Alycen Wiacek.) A. Wiacek is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA (e-mail: awiacek1. . edu).
Publisher Copyright:
© 1986-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - Ultrasound is frequently used in conjunction with mammography in order to detect breast cancer as early as possible. However, due largely to the heterogeneity of breast tissue, ultrasound images are plagued with clutter that obstructs important diagnostic features. Short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) imaging has proven to be effective at clutter reduction in noisy ultrasound images. $M$-Weighted SLSC and Robust-SLSC (R-SLSC) imaging were recently introduced to further improve image quality at higher lag values, while R-SLSC imaging has the added benefit of enabling the adjustment of tissue texture to produce a tissue signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is quantitatively similar to B-mode speckle SNR. This paper investigates the initial application of SLSC, $M$-Weighted SLSC, and R-SLSC imaging to nine targets in the female breast [two simple cysts, one complicated cyst, two fibroadenomas, one hematoma, one complex cystic and solid mass, one invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), and one ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)]. As expected, R-SLSC beamforming improves cyst and hematoma contrast by up to 6.35 and 1.55 dB, respectively, when compared to the original B-mode image, and similar improvements are achieved with SLSC and $M$-Weighted SLSC imaging. However, an interesting finding from this initial investigation is that the solid masses (i.e., fibroadenoma, complex cystic and solid mass, IDC, and DCIS), which appear as hypoechoic in the B-mode image, have similarly high coherence to that of surrounding tissue in coherence-based images. This work holds promise for using SLSC, $M$-Weighted SLSC, and/or R-SLSC imaging to distinguish between fluid-filled and solid hypoechoic breast masses.
AB - Ultrasound is frequently used in conjunction with mammography in order to detect breast cancer as early as possible. However, due largely to the heterogeneity of breast tissue, ultrasound images are plagued with clutter that obstructs important diagnostic features. Short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) imaging has proven to be effective at clutter reduction in noisy ultrasound images. $M$-Weighted SLSC and Robust-SLSC (R-SLSC) imaging were recently introduced to further improve image quality at higher lag values, while R-SLSC imaging has the added benefit of enabling the adjustment of tissue texture to produce a tissue signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is quantitatively similar to B-mode speckle SNR. This paper investigates the initial application of SLSC, $M$-Weighted SLSC, and R-SLSC imaging to nine targets in the female breast [two simple cysts, one complicated cyst, two fibroadenomas, one hematoma, one complex cystic and solid mass, one invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), and one ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)]. As expected, R-SLSC beamforming improves cyst and hematoma contrast by up to 6.35 and 1.55 dB, respectively, when compared to the original B-mode image, and similar improvements are achieved with SLSC and $M$-Weighted SLSC imaging. However, an interesting finding from this initial investigation is that the solid masses (i.e., fibroadenoma, complex cystic and solid mass, IDC, and DCIS), which appear as hypoechoic in the B-mode image, have similarly high coherence to that of surrounding tissue in coherence-based images. This work holds promise for using SLSC, $M$-Weighted SLSC, and/or R-SLSC imaging to distinguish between fluid-filled and solid hypoechoic breast masses.
KW - Breast ultrasound
KW - coherence-based beamforming
KW - compressed sensing
KW - ultrasonic imaging
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U2 - 10.1109/TUFFC.2018.2883427
DO - 10.1109/TUFFC.2018.2883427
M3 - Article
C2 - 30507500
AN - SCOPUS:85057846709
SN - 0885-3010
VL - 66
SP - 527
EP - 540
JO - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
JF - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
IS - 3
M1 - 8548567
ER -