Improving Ultrasound B-Mode Image Quality with Coherent Plane-Wave Compounding Using Adaptive Beamformers Based on Minimum Variance

Medical ultrasound imaging using coherent plane-wave compounding (CPWC) for higher frame-rate applications has generated considerable interest in the research community. The adaptive Eigenspace Beamformer technique combined with a Generalized Sidelobe Canceler (GSC) provides noise and interference reduction in images, improving resolution and contrast compared to basic methods: Delay and Sum (DAS) and Minimum Variance (MV). Different filtering approaches are applied in ultrasound image processing to reduce speckle signals. This work introduces the combination of beamformer Eigenspace Based on Minimum Variance (ESBMV) associated with GSC (EGSC) and the Kuan (EGSCK), Lee (EGSCL), and Wiener (EGSCW) filters and their enhanced versions to obtain better quality of plane-wave ultrasound images. The EGSCK technique did not present significant improvements compared to other methods. However, the EGSC with enhanced Kuan (EGSCKe) showed a remarkable reduction in geometric distortion, i.e., 0.13 mm (35%) and 0.49 mm (67%) compared to the EGSC and DAS techniques, respectively. The EGSC with Enhanced Wiener (EGSCWe) showed the best improvements in contrast radio (CR) aspects, i.e., 74% compared to the DAS technique and 60% to the EGSC technique. Furthermore, our proposed method reduces geometric distortion, making it a good option for plane-wave ultrasound imaging.