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Automated contrast evaluation software+ for TCC's 3D Ultrasound tissue-mimicking quality assurance (QA) phantom
The performance of ultrasound B-scanners can be estimated by imaging the cylindrical targets or voids at various depths. The attenuation, speed of sound and frequency dependent backscattering of the phantom is comparable with living tissue. This is the condition and best way for assessment of scanner quality.
Although the performance of a scanner can be estimated by finding the voids in various depths, the result of measurement is acceptable only as a performance of instrument for homogeneous media.
The typical result of automated contrast evaluation is presented in Fig.1:
Fig.1. - The cylindrical voids appearing in ROI (region of interest) and their contrast values in different depth expressed in dB.
The contrast evaluation program isolates all detected voids (Fig.2.) and calculate the gray level mean of the voids and gray level mean of the voids' surrounding. The difference of gray levels for voids and surrounding is expressed in dB (Fig.1). The size of voids is symbolically presented with diameter of circles (Details in QC-HANDBOOK).
The precise data of contrast evaluation for all segments are available as text file (TABLE I). Only the part of the table for example in Fig.1. is presented.
Fig.2 - Isolated voids of QA phantom
TABLE I
