Clutter Suppression in Echocardiography Using Short-Lag Spatial Coherence Imaging

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Inadequate visualization of ultrasonic images leads to increased exam time, decreased patient throughput, diminished quality or indeterminate diagnosis, or referral of the patient to other imaging procedures. Alternative imaging methods generally increase costs and/or expose the patient to invasive or potentially hazardous imaging procedures. In this application, we propose a new ultrasonic imaging method, called Short-Lag Spatial Coherence (SLSC) imaging, that demonstrates the ability to greatly suppress acoustical clutter and significantly improve ultrasonic imaging quality. We present preliminary data demonstrating the success of this technique in human livers and hearts. We propose to build real-time SLSC imaging systems and analyze them in key tasks in echocardiography. In addition, we propose to build the mathematical framework to describe this imaging technique and to develop advanced SLSC imaging methods. We propose clinical studies in stress echocardiography to evaluate the potential of this technique in visualizing endocardial borders in difficult-to-image patients.