Simulation analysis on effectiveness of nonlinear ultrasound imaging using synthetic cyst phantoms

Application of nonlinear ultrasound techniques is recently gaining importance in medical imaging. Ultrasound imaging is a commonly used diagnostic method due to its low cost, safe and portable facilities. However, linear ultrasound imaging provides poor resolutions. The harmonic content can provide better resolution rather than the fundamental frequency. Conversely, increasing complexity is obvious impact of nonlinearity consideration. This simulation study presents a comparative analysis of linear and non-linear ultrasound imaging of different synthetic phantoms in order to find the effectiveness on nonlinear ultrasound techniques. We have used two widely accepted ultrasound simulator Field II and CREANUIS. Synthetic phantom has been developed considering both linear and non-linear propagation media with possible inhomogeneous coefficient of nonlinearity. Simulated images have been examined in terms of SNR, CNR and resolution. The nonlinear imaging has showed its effectiveness over linear technique for the images with closely located multiple cysts where lateral resolution is important.