Estimation of Ultrasound Attenuation Coefficients with Nonlinear Frequency Dependency for Human Liver

인체간 조직의 비선형 초음파 감쇄상수 추정

In this study, the coefficients of ultrasound attenuation for human liver were determined in 6 normal humans and in 38 patients with diffuse liver disease. The coefficients with linear frequency dependency as well as nonlinear frequency dependency were evaluated. Gaussian pulse propagating in a lossy medium suffers downshifting of a center frequency and decreasing in the bandwidth. Such changes in frequency domain spectrum were quantified in terms of changes in the attenuation coefficients with nonlinear dependency, which in turn improve clinical Implications of the coefficients. Statistical analysis shows that the attenuation coefficients evaluated with nonlinear dependency reflect an improved accuracy for the diffuse liver disease than those with linear dependency. The discriminant analysis also indicate the improved classification with nonlinear dependency(75%) than with linear dependency(61%).