Ultrasound Attenuation Coefficient Estimation: Comparison among Different Beamforming and Data Acquisition Methods

SummaryConventional B-mode ultrasound is widely used in clinical settings and can be supplemented by quantitative analysis of backscattered signals. Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) has seen growing interest in providing supplemental and quantitative insights into tissue characteristics and disease diagnostics. The accuracy of QUS, however, depends on the acquisition and format of the backscattered signals. This paper investigates the impact of several data acquisition techniques on QUS performance. The study demonstrates that unprocessed channel data, from plane wave imaging, delivers the most accurate Attenuation Coefficient Estimation (ACE) measurement, with an average error of about 5% for ACE across different independent experiments.