Empirical Bayes Estimation of Tissue Scatterer Distribution from Ultrasonic Echo

Abstract

In ultrasonic medical imaging, in addition to the boundaries of organs, blood vessels, etc., speckle patterns generated as interference of echoes from small scatterers in living tissue are often observed. Speckle pattern has information on the tissue properties and can be efficiently used as local position information for measuring tissue motions, for example. On the other hand, these are the main factor for lowering the image resolution. In this study, we aim to improve the resolution of ultrasonic imaging by restoring the scatterer distribution within the tissues from the echo. Statistics calculated from the restored scatterer distribution are expected to contribute to the construction of new indicators for tissue properties diagnosis.