DIFFRACTION CORRECTION METHODS FOR PULSE-ECHO ACOUSTIC ATTENUATION ESTIMATION

We describe computer simulations and water tank experiments for the estimation of the attenuation coefficient in scattering media. The efficacies of the Axial Beam Translation (ABT) and Inverse Diffraction Filtering (IDF) methods in reducing diffraction errors in such estimates are compared throughout the radiation field of a plane transducer. The effect of phase aberration due to the body wall and the effect of the scattering properties of the media are considered. Consistent improvement in the estimation due to ABT is demonstrated as well as unreliable improvement due to IDF which is sensitive to the presence of phase aberration and to changes in scattering. © 1990.