Concurrent Clutter and Noise Suppression via Low Rank Plus Sparse Optimization for Non-Contrast Ultrasound Flow Doppler Processing in Microvasculature

A low rank plus sparse framework for concurrent clutter and noise suppression in Doppler processing of echo ensembles obtained by non-contrast ultrasound imaging is presented. A low rank component which represents mostly strong tissue clutter signal and a sparse component which represents mostly blood echoes received from slow flows in microvasculature are assumed. The proposed method is applied to simulated data and its superior performance over conventional singular value thresholding in removing clutter and background noise is presented.