The comparison of tissue vibration signal extraction algorithms in shearwave dispersion ultrasound vibrometry

Shearwave Dispersion Ultrasound Vibrometry (SDUV), a method could quantify both tissue elasticity and viscosity has been introduced recently. Vibration extraction is an important step in SDUV. Two vibration extraction algorithms, the quadrature demodulation method (QDM) and the cross-spectrum method (CSM) are usually used in SDUV. However, the extraction quality of QDM and CSM are under appropriate comparison. This study aims at comparing the extraction quality of QDM and CSM based on a parameterized model for various signal-to-noise ratio of ultrasound echoes ('SNRU). Results showed that when SNRU > 35dB, the standard deviations of the estimated vibration phase using the vibration extracted by the two methods are close, which has no significant differences on the calculation result of the shear wave speed. The computation efficiency of CSM is lower than that of QDM. As a conclusion, when SNRa < 35dB, the tissue vibration should be extracted by CSM to suppress the estimation error of vibration phase. However, when SNRa > 35dB, the tissue vibration should be extracted by QDM to reduce the processing time. The findings in this study may provider some strategy in SDUV, which can optimize the examination protocol and make it more efficient.*.