Data from: Utility of coherence-based adaptive frequency selection in a clinical scanner

Abstract: Many advances have been made in ultrasound beamforming and signal processing in the past several decades. However, there is currently no widely validated method by which scanner parameters such as imaging frequency are selected. Additionally, sonographers face a host of physical and logistical challenges during the course of a standard ultrasound examination, thereby limiting the efficacy of manual and time-consuming methods to select scanning parameters. We describe and evaluate an adaptive frequency selection method which seeks to predict the imaging frequency that maximizes image quality using spatial coherence, a well-established metric for quantifying clutter levels in vivo, as a real-time feedback metric. This study investigated the efficacy of adaptive frequency selection in the presence of clutter in healthy volunteers with a variety of body habitus. The adaptively selected frequency was determined using a measurement of target detectability, which combines both coherence and resolution information. This selected frequency was evaluated in a reader study comparing the selected frequency to the transducer default frequency. Statistical testing revealed a significant increase in the overall image quality of adaptively selected images compared to default images (p<0.001). These results suggest that an imaging frequency can be adaptively selected to improve target detection.

Summary of Data - Results from a reader study of ultrasound image quality. Exported data from signal to noise ratio measurements from raw ultrasound data. Code to make plots and display image results.

摘要：近数十年来，超声波束成形与信号处理领域已取得诸多进展。然而，当前尚无得到广泛验证的方法可用于选取成像频率这类扫描仪参数。此外，超声医师在开展标准超声检查时，会面临大量物理层面与操作流程层面的挑战，这使得手动且耗时的扫描参数选择方法的效能大打折扣。
本文描述并评估了一种自适应频率选择方法：该方法以空间相干性（spatial coherence）——一种用于量化体内杂波水平的成熟指标——作为实时反馈指标，旨在预测可最大化图像质量的最优成像频率。本研究针对不同体型的健康志愿者，探究了存在杂波时该自适应频率选择方法的效能。自适应选择的频率通过目标可检测性的测量结果确定，该指标同时结合了相干性与分辨率信息。我们将该选定频率与超声换能器（transducer）默认频率进行对比，通过阅片者研究对其展开评估。统计检验结果显示，相较于默认频率成像所得图像，自适应选择频率所获图像的整体质量存在显著提升（p<0.001）。上述结果表明，可通过自适应方式选取成像频率，从而改善目标检测效果。
数据集摘要——超声图像质量阅片者研究结果。从原始超声数据的信噪比（signal-to-noise ratio）测量中导出的数据集。用于生成绘图与展示图像结果的代码。