A Deep Learning Approach for Beamforming and Contrast Enhancement of Ultrasound Images in Monostatic Synthetic Aperture Imaging: A Proof-of-Concept

Goal:
In this study, we demonstrate that a deep neural network (DNN) can be trained to reconstruct high-contrast images, resembling those produced by the multistatic Synthetic Aperture (SA) method using a 128-element array, leveraging pre-beamforming radiofrequency (RF) signals acquired through the monostatic SA approach.
Methods
: A U-net was trained using 27200 pairs of RF signals, simulated considering a monostatic SA architecture, with their corresponding delay-and-sum beamformed target images in a multistatic 128-element SA configuration. The contrast was assessed on 500 simulated test images of anechoic/hyperechoic targets. The DNN's performance in reconstructing experimental images of a phantom and different
in vivo
scenarios was tested too.
Results
: The DNN, compared to the simple monostatic SA approach used to acquire pre-beamforming signals, generated better-quality images with higher contrast and reduced noise/artifacts.
Conclusions
: The obtained results suggest the potential for the development of a single-channel setup, simultaneously providing good-quality images and reducing hardware complexity.