Eccentric grey scale rectification for high frequency intravascular ultrasound imaging

Examined are those factors that would affect the quality of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) images; they include the eccentricity of transducer catheter, multiple echoes, radial and lateral impulse response, transducer proximity with the vessel wall, and petal-shaped effect. An approach for rectifying the circumferential nonuniformity of grey scale is presented; it utilizes the acoustic speckle model of the IVUS transducer. Experiment results using latex tube and pig vessel in vitro demonstrate that they could improve the quality of high frequency IVUS images in relation to edge extraction and motion estimate.