A novel approach to a phantom based method for maximum depth of penetration measurement in diagnostic ultrasound: a preliminary study

In the present work a new approach for maximum depth of ultrasound signal visualization has been proposed by means of a tissue mimicking phantoms: the novel method is based on a threshold on the tangent applied to the mean depth profile that is drawn by averaging adjacent columns in the diagnostic image. It has been implemented and preliminary tested on three different diagnostic systems equipped with linear array probes under similar settings: results have been compared with the mean judgment of 5 observer and with output from another method, based on a threshold of the mean depth profile above the noise level, as suggested in literature. Even though a not negligible difference among some results is observed, due likely to the high electronic noise level displayed in the ultrasound image, the tangent method seems to agree with observer judgment and be more sensitive to echo signal than the other one, even at higher noise levels. Nevertheless other test are going to be performed in the next future for a more detailed characterization of the method.