Compounding and Hexagonal Filtering for Ultrasound Enhancement

Medical ultrasound imaging uses pulsed acoustic signals that are transmitted and received by a hand-held transducer. This technology is useful in diagnostic imaging and has several advantages: it is cost-effective and safe in many applications. However, the quality of the images is limited by the physical properties of ultrasound signals. This dissertation proposes a combination of spatial compounding and hexagonal filtering algorithms to reduce speckle and improve resolution in ultrasound images. The results showed total improvements in signal to noise ratio and contrast to noise ratio of up to 360% and 300% respectively in simulated images, and up to 200% and up to 100% in phantom images. With enhancement techniques, ultrasound images may become even more valuable and more suitable for quantitative measurements.