Matthew T Huber, Katelyn M Flint, Patricia J McNally, Sarah C Ellestad, Gregg E Trahey
{"title":"B 型超声扫描过程中人类观察者对时间噪声的敏感性:特征描述和成像影响。","authors":"Matthew T Huber, Katelyn M Flint, Patricia J McNally, Sarah C Ellestad, Gregg E Trahey","doi":"10.1177/01617346241236160","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This work measures temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) thresholds that indicate when random noise during ultrasound scanning becomes imperceptible to expert human observers. Visible noise compromises image quality and can potentially lead to non-diagnostic scans. Noise can arise from both stable acoustic sources (clutter) or randomly varying electronic sources (temporal noise). Extensive engineering effort has focused on decreasing noise in both of these categories. In this work, an observer study with five practicing sonographers was performed to assess sonographer sensitivity to temporal noise in ultrasound cine clips. Understanding the conditions where temporal noise is no longer visible during ultrasound imaging can inform engineering efforts seeking to minimize the impact this noise has on image quality. The sonographers were presented with paired temporal noise-free and noise-added simulated speckle cine clips and asked to select the noise-added clips. The degree of motion in the imaging target was found to have a significant effect on the SNR levels where noise was perceived, while changing imaging frequency had little impact. At realistic in vivo motion levels, temporal noise was not perceived in cine clips at and above 28 dB SNR. In a case study presented here, the potential of adaptive intensity adjustment based on this noise perception threshold is validated in a fetal imaging scenario. This study demonstrates how noise perception thresholds can be applied to help design or tune ultrasound systems for different imaging tasks and noise conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":49401,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonic Imaging","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Human Observer Sensitivity to Temporal Noise During B-Mode Ultrasound Scanning: Characterization and Imaging Implications.\",\"authors\":\"Matthew T Huber, Katelyn M Flint, Patricia J McNally, Sarah C Ellestad, Gregg E Trahey\",\"doi\":\"10.1177/01617346241236160\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>This work measures temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) thresholds that indicate when random noise during ultrasound scanning becomes imperceptible to expert human observers. Visible noise compromises image quality and can potentially lead to non-diagnostic scans. Noise can arise from both stable acoustic sources (clutter) or randomly varying electronic sources (temporal noise). Extensive engineering effort has focused on decreasing noise in both of these categories. In this work, an observer study with five practicing sonographers was performed to assess sonographer sensitivity to temporal noise in ultrasound cine clips. Understanding the conditions where temporal noise is no longer visible during ultrasound imaging can inform engineering efforts seeking to minimize the impact this noise has on image quality. The sonographers were presented with paired temporal noise-free and noise-added simulated speckle cine clips and asked to select the noise-added clips. The degree of motion in the imaging target was found to have a significant effect on the SNR levels where noise was perceived, while changing imaging frequency had little impact. At realistic in vivo motion levels, temporal noise was not perceived in cine clips at and above 28 dB SNR. In a case study presented here, the potential of adaptive intensity adjustment based on this noise perception threshold is validated in a fetal imaging scenario. This study demonstrates how noise perception thresholds can be applied to help design or tune ultrasound systems for different imaging tasks and noise conditions.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":49401,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Ultrasonic Imaging\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-05-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Ultrasonic Imaging\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"5\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1177/01617346241236160\",\"RegionNum\":4,\"RegionCategory\":\"医学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"2024/3/18 0:00:00\",\"PubModel\":\"Epub\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"ACOUSTICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ultrasonic Imaging","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01617346241236160","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/3/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ACOUSTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
Human Observer Sensitivity to Temporal Noise During B-Mode Ultrasound Scanning: Characterization and Imaging Implications.
This work measures temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) thresholds that indicate when random noise during ultrasound scanning becomes imperceptible to expert human observers. Visible noise compromises image quality and can potentially lead to non-diagnostic scans. Noise can arise from both stable acoustic sources (clutter) or randomly varying electronic sources (temporal noise). Extensive engineering effort has focused on decreasing noise in both of these categories. In this work, an observer study with five practicing sonographers was performed to assess sonographer sensitivity to temporal noise in ultrasound cine clips. Understanding the conditions where temporal noise is no longer visible during ultrasound imaging can inform engineering efforts seeking to minimize the impact this noise has on image quality. The sonographers were presented with paired temporal noise-free and noise-added simulated speckle cine clips and asked to select the noise-added clips. The degree of motion in the imaging target was found to have a significant effect on the SNR levels where noise was perceived, while changing imaging frequency had little impact. At realistic in vivo motion levels, temporal noise was not perceived in cine clips at and above 28 dB SNR. In a case study presented here, the potential of adaptive intensity adjustment based on this noise perception threshold is validated in a fetal imaging scenario. This study demonstrates how noise perception thresholds can be applied to help design or tune ultrasound systems for different imaging tasks and noise conditions.
期刊介绍:
Ultrasonic Imaging provides rapid publication for original and exceptional papers concerned with the development and application of ultrasonic-imaging technology. Ultrasonic Imaging publishes articles in the following areas: theoretical and experimental aspects of advanced methods and instrumentation for imaging