Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108

www.elsevier.com/locate/ultras

Comparison of shift estimation strategies in spectral elastography

a,b a,* c
Kenneth Hoyt , Flemming Forsberg , Jonathan Ophir
a
Department of Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
c
Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX 77030, USA

Received 25 April 2005; received in revised form 18 August 2005; accepted 19 August 2005
Available online 28 September 2005

Abstract

This paper compares the performance of various spectral shift estimators for use in spectral elastography, namely, the normalized
cross-correlation (NCC), sum squared difference (SSD) and sum absolute difference (SAD). Simulation and experimental results dem-
onstrate that the spectral SSD-based elastographic method exhibits no marked difference in performance compared to the more compu-
tationally costly NCC-based approach, which has conventionally been the preferred estimator in spectral elastography. The spectral
SAD-based strain estimator, despite being computationally less burdening, failed to exhibit performance comparable to that of the
NCC- and SSD-based techniques. Furthermore, though spectral subsample estimation techniques using a cosine-fit interpolation method
outperformed that of the parabolic-fit method in terms of both reduced bias errors and standard deviations, the latter was analyzed in
this study due to computational simplicity. The role of spectral density was evaluated without and with parabolic-based subsample inter-
polation. Based on minimizing computational complexity, it is concluded that a (low density) spectral SSD strain estimator coupled with
parabolic-based subsample estimation is the preferred choice for spectral elastography.

2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Elasticity imaging; Spectral elastography; Strain Filter; Subsample estimation; Ultrasound imaging

1. Introduction Conventional elastographic imaging is a time-domain

Throughout the last fifteen years, elastography has
emerged as an effective imaging modality for depicting
local strain distributions in soft tissue [1]. Interpreted as a
surrogate for the true tissue modulus distribution, the
fundamental premise behind elastographic imaging is that
local changes in soft tissue stiffness are generally correlated
to pathological changes. Thus, early detection of these
changes may be important from a clinical perspective in
order to improve patient prognosis. Since its introduction
to the research community in 1991 by Ophir et al. [1], elas-
tography has found utility in many clinical applications
ranging from (but not limited to) cancer imaging in breast
[2] and prostate [3,4] to the intravascular detection and
characterization of vulnerable plaques [5].
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 215 955 4870; fax: +1 215 955 8549.
E-mail address: flemming.forsberg@jefferson.edu (F. Forsberg).
approach which estimates axial tissue displacement from
the cross-correlation function applied to congruent pre-
and post-compression gated RF echo signals [1]. By per-
forming this estimation technique to overlapping windows
and, subsequently, to all A-lines in the image plane, an
axial tissue displacement field is obtained. The gradient
of this displacement field results in a strain image (termed
an elastogram). Despite exhibiting a high sensitivity for
extracting tissue strain information [6], conventional elas-
tographic techniques have been shown to be susceptible to
decorrelation noise sources that manifest by degrading
the tissue displacement estimation process [7]. Though
strain estimation enhancement techniques such as global
stretching [8], multicompression averaging [9] and local
adaptive processing algorithms [10,11] may reduce this
degradation, the effects of decorrelation noise still can
remain a source of image (information) content ambigu-
ity, which should be further minimized if elastography is

0041-624X/$ - see front matter
2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2005.08.006
100 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108
to find acceptance and widespread use in the clinical
setting.
Spectral elastography was introduced as an alternative
to the conventional elastographic technique and functions
by estimating local tissue strain directly from the relative
shift between sets of pre- and post-compression power
spectra [12,13] or from the spectral scaling factor [14].
More importantly, spectral elastography has been reported
to be more robust to decorrelation processes such as axial
jitter and out-of-beam tissue motion than conventional
elastography [12,15]. It has also been shown that by utiliz-
ing adaptive spectral strain estimation techniques, marked
improvements in estimator performance may be obtained
when compared to temporal elastographic methods com-
pounded with strain enhancement techniques, namely,
local adaptive processing [16]. Despite these promising re-
sults in terms of spectral elastographic performance, com-
putational complexity still constitutes a source of concern
for real-time applications.
An initial set of reports detailing spectral elastography
utilized a high spectral density (i.e., Fourier transform
length) in order to provide sufficient data samples as input
to the discrete cross-correlation function and for the subse-
quent spectral shift estimation [12,13]. Our group later
showed that by utilizing curve-fitting interpolation about
the spectral cross-correlation peak (in order to estimate
the subsample spectral shift) that the spectral density
(and computational complexity) may be significantly re-
duced while sustaining the elastographic signal-to-noise
ratio (SNRe) [15]. A concern of this latter report is that
parabolic interpolation was employed as the curve-fitting
method, and despite being computationally simple, it has
been shown to exhibit subsample dependent bias and vari-
ability in time-domain applications [17].
Overall, the motivation for this research project was to
investigate spectral elastography from a computational
complexity perspective and to evaluate potential means
for its minimization while maintaining spectral elasto-
graphic performance.
2. Simulation methods and results
2.1. Spectral shift estimators
The shift in spectral elastography has typically been esti-
mated using the normalized cross-correlation function
(NCC), which is defined as
PN =2
m¼1 S 0 ðmÞ
S 1 ðm þ kÞ
RNCC ðkÞ ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
PN =2 PN =2 ffi ð1Þ
S ðmÞ S ðmÞ
m¼1 0 m¼1 1
where S0 and S1 denote the pre- and post-compressed
power spectra, respectively, and N represents the spectral
window length (typically described as the Fourier trans-
form length or spectral density). Note the upper limits of
summation, which are equal to the folding frequency of
the power spectra or N/2. The argument k that maximizes
the amplitude of Eq. (1) is taken as the spectral shift esti-
mate and is related to tissue strain s as follows [15]:
k
s¼ ð2Þ
k0
where k0 is the center frequency of the pre-compression
scattering function.
In order to compute tissue strain as described by Eq. (2),
the spectral estimates must be derived using windowed RF
echo signals. Furthermore, to ensure that strain analysis
was applied to windowed pre- and post-compression sig-
nals composed of the same echo information, the latter seg-
ments were shifted and scaled as a function of the applied
strain prior to performing spectral estimation [12,14,15].
Note that this post-compression data windowing operation
is regarded as an indirect approach to incorporate signal
phase information into the strain estimation process and,
consequently, allows for a more accurate description of
strain information when investigating tissues subjected to
small applied compressions. The frequency content of each
data window was estimated using an N-length fast Fourier
transform (FFT) computation whereas the power spectrum
for these same data windows was taken as the magnitude
squared of the FFT output normalized by the length of
the spectral window.
Simulations were implemented in order to compare the
performance of the NCC to that of two other less compu-
tationally burdensome pattern matching functions, namely,
the sum squared difference (SSD)
X
N =2
RSSD ðkÞ ¼ ðS 0 ðmÞ  S 1 ðm þ kÞÞ
2
ð3Þ
m¼1
and the sum absolute difference (SAD)
X
N =2
RSAD ðkÞ ¼ jS 0 ðmÞ  S 1 ðm þ kÞj ð4Þ
m¼1
where the argument that minimizes the amplitude of Eq.
(3) or (4) is taken as the spectral shift estimate and related
to tissue strain via Eq. (2). The selection of the SSD and
SAD methods for evaluation in this study was premised
on previous reports which concluded superior performance
compared to other time-delay estimators [18]. Note the
overall reduction in computational complexity when mov-
ing from Eq. (1) to (3) to (4).
An elastographic simulation program was developed
using Matlab (Mathworks, Inc., Natick, MA, USA). A
1-D model was implemented that assumes Gaussian mod-
ulated sine and cosine pulses (7.5 MHz center frequency
with a 60% fractional bandwidth) for the impulse response
of the ultrasound system (or point spread function; PSF)
and tissue scattering function, respectively. Additionally,
the speed of sound was assumed to be 1540 m/s. In general,
a pre-compression RF echo A-line sequence (40 mm in
length and sampled at 60 MHz) was created by convolving
the PSF with the scattering function. The post-compression
echo sequence was subsequently created by linearly com-
 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108 101

Table 1 (and corresponding SNRe) described by this same range

Default values used to generate the reference and delay spectral signals
Parameter
Center frequency (fc)
Fractional bandwidth (B)
Sampling frequency (fs)
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
Temporal window length (L)
Spectral window length (N)
pressing the scattering distribution by a specified strain
level and then convolving with the PSF in the same manner
as done for the pre-compressed signal. For the simulation
results presented in this section, strain estimates were ob-
tained from 20 strain levels (dynamic range of 0.1–50%)
and averaged over 50 independent realizations. The default
values used for the simulations described in this paper are
summarized in Table 1 unless otherwise noted. All statisti-
cal results introduced were obtained using a two-sample
t-test (assume unequal variances) where a p-value less than
0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Strain estimator performance was quantified using the
SNRe which is defined for a homogenous strain region as
l
SNRe ¼ s ð5Þ
rs
where ls denotes the mean strain estimates (signal) and rs
the standard deviation of the strain estimates (or strain esti-
mate noise). Additionally, simulation results were obtained
depicting the range of strains from the compressed tissue as
a function of the SNRe. Termed the Strain Filter [6], it can
be regarded as a measure of estimator performance, which
allows investigation into the tradeoffs between various
strain processing technique and parameters. Specifically,
the width of the Strain Filter for a given SNRe is an indi-
cator of the strain dynamic range over which the SNRe ex-
ceeds a particular value; whereas the lowest strain value
denotes sensitivity.
Value The mean strain estimates are illustrated in Fig. 1 for the
7.5 MHz various spectral shift estimation methods. Fig. 1a demon-
60% strates that all estimators follow a linear trend for applied
60 MHz strains less than 10%. Inspection of expanded results for an
30 dB
3.0 mm
applied strain range from 0.5% to 5% (Fig. 1b) indicates
1024 that the SAD spectra strain estimator tends to slightly
underestimate the true (applied) strain value, which is accu-
rately estimated using both the spectral NCC and SSD
elastographic methods.
The strain estimate variability (i.e., standard deviation
of the strain estimates) for the spectral NCC, SSD and
SAD strain estimators are illustrated in Fig. 2. Inspection
of Fig. 2a indicates that for applied strain greater than
5%, an abrupt increase in strain estimate standard devia-
tion ensues for all estimators evaluated. Additionally, there
is no discernible discrimination between the NCC and SSD
methods. Fig. 2b demonstrates that both the spectral NCC
and SSD strain estimators exhibit the same estimation var-
iance while being markedly lower than that demonstrated
by the SAD method.
Simulation Strain Filters are illustrated in Fig. 3. The
spectral SAD strain estimation method exhibits a lower
SNRe (most noticeable for applied strains between 1.0%
and 5.0%) when compared to the Strain Filter responses
derived using the NCC- and SSD-based methods (albeit
not statistically significant, p = 0.73, when considering the
entire Strain Filter response), whereas comparison of the
latter two approaches (i.e., Strain Filter responses) indi-
cates analogous performance (p > 0.99). Overall, these re-
sults indicate that the spectral NCC and SSD strain
estimation techniques perform virtually identically. Addi-
tionally, inspection of Eqs. (1) and (3) for the respective
pattern matching functions indicates that a reduction in
computation load is achieved when employing the SSD
method over that of the NCC due to the fact the former

2
10
NCC
SSD
SAD
Mean Strain Estimate µs

1
Mean Strain Estimate µs

10
0
10

0
10

-1 -1
10 10
-1 0 1 2 -1 0
10 10 10 10 10 10
(a) Applied Strain (%) (b) Applied Strain (%)

Fig. 1. Comparison of spectral strain estimators for the measured strain versus the true applied strain for the NCC, SSD and SAD spectral shift
estimation methods. Graph (b) depicts an expanded view of (a). The power spectra were computed using a 4096 FFT and 3.0 mm temporal windows with
80% overlap.
102 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108

-3
x 10
0.05 5
NCC
Strain Estimate Standard Deviation σs

Strain Estimate Standard Deviation σs

SSD
0.04 SAD 4

0.03 3

0.02 2

0.01 1

0 0
-1 0 1 2 -1 0
10 10 10 10 10 10
(a) Applied Strain (%) (b) Applied Strain (%)

Fig. 2. Comparison of strain estimator performances (strain estimate variability) for the NCC, SSD and SAD spectral shift estimation methods. Graph (b)
depicts an expanded view of (a). The power spectra were computed using a 4096 FFT and 3.0 mm temporal windows with 80% overlap.

25 the focus of the comparison made in this paper will be

NCC on the parabolic and cosine curving fitting methods due
SSD to their relative computational simplicity. Specifically, the
20 SAD
subsample spectral shift ok is computed using parabolic-
fit interpolation about the peak of the spectral pattern
15
matching curve R(0) as follows:
SNRe

10
Rð1Þ  Rð1Þ
ok ¼ ð6Þ
2ðRð1Þ  2Rð0Þ þ Rð1ÞÞ
5
where R(1) and R(1) denote the two nearest-neighbor
samples. Conversely, the subsample spectral shift com-
0
-1 0 1 2
puted cosine interpolation is given by the following
10 10 10 10
expression:
Applied Strain (%)
b
Fig. 3. Illustration of simulated Strain Filters for the spectral NCC, SSD ok ¼  ð7Þ
and SAD strain estimators investigated. The power spectra were computed
a
using a 4096 FFT and 3.0 mm temporal windows with 80% overlap. The where
NCC and SSD exhibit nearly identical performance and both methods  
outperform the SAD method in terms of sensitivity, dynamic range and Rð1Þ þ Rð1Þ
a ¼ arccos
SNRe. 2Rð0Þ
  ð8Þ
Rð1Þ  Rð1Þ
b ¼ arctan
2Rð0Þ sin a
does not require normalization by the variances of the
respective signals. Note that the cosine interpolation method is more com-
putationally demanding than the parabolic method due to
2.2. Subsample estimation the geometric functions.
A subsample simulation program was developed using
Most shifts encountered in spectral elastography are not Matlab (Mathworks, Inc., Natick, MA, USA) in order to
exact integer values and thus require some form of interpo- evaluate the performance (in terms of subsample bias error
lation strategy in order to increase the density of the sam- and standard deviation) of the spectral SSD shift estimator
ples. Though increasing the Fourier transform length will coupled with the curve-fitting subsample estimation tech-
improve the accuracy of the shift estimator, this requires nique described by Eqs. (6) and (7). A set of 250 synthetic
a large N-length Fourier transform and thus is computa- RF echo base signals were generated by convolving the
tionally burdensome since it essentially provides interpo- PSF (for a given set of system parameters) with the scatter-
lated samples throughout the entire spectrum. Typically, ing function (as described in the previous section). Power
subsample estimation in time-domain applications is per- spectral estimates for these base signals were computed as
formed via some curve-fitting method about the pattern the magnitude squared of an N-length fast Fourier trans-
matching function. Though several methods have evolved form (FFT). Analogous to the method described by Viola
over the years and have appeared in the literature [17,19], and Walker [17], referenced and delayed spectral signals
 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108 103

were formed by decimating the base signals at 100 times the standard deviation when compared to the parabolic-
desired final sampling rate, then the base signals were sub- based method [19]. Since these marginal improvements
sequently decimated starting at different samples to pro- in performance are at the expense of an increase in
duce reference and delayed signals with known subsample computational complexity, the parabolic-fit interpolated
spectral delay. Subsample delays were varied from 0 to method is employed for the remainder of this section,
0.95 samples in increments of 0.05 samples. Finally, the which is dedicated to a detailed analysis into the relative
mean spectral subsample bias error and standard devia- performance of this spectral subsample estimator (using
tions were computed as follows: simulation).
The role of data sampling frequency on subsample esti-
b ¼ 1 X 250
b i  DkÞ mation performance is illustrated in Fig. 5. As the sampling
bð DkÞ ð Dk ð9Þ
250 i¼1 rate is increased, subsample estimation performance deteri-
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
!2ffi orates in terms of increased bias errors and subsample shift
u
u 1 X 250
1 X250
variability. This is opposite to what has been reported for
b ¼t
rð DkÞ Dk i  b j
Dk ð10Þ
250 i¼1 250 j¼1 subsample estimation in the time-domain [17,19]. However,
it should be remembered that ultrasound signals described
where Dk and Dkb denote the true and estimated spectral de- in the frequency domain are bandlimited. Thus, given a
lays, respectively. fixed FFT length (i.e., spectral window), the impact of
The results presented in Fig. 4 compare the bias errors increasing the sampling rate is that the signal spectrum as-
(Fig. 4a) and standard deviations (Fig. 4b) of the sub- sumes a smaller proportion of the overall spectrum length.
sample interpolated estimates obtained using either the This effectively decreases the SNR and leads to a decrease
parabolic or cosine curve-fitting techniques. The cosine- in subsample estimation accuracy. Note this analysis as-
based curve-fitting method exhibits moderate perfor- sumes the sampling frequency is not lowered to the extent
mance improvements in terms of lower bias error and so as to produce aliasing effects.

-3
x 10
0.02 1
Parabolic Fit Parabolic Fit
Standard Deviation (Samples)

Cosine Fit Cosine Fit

0.8
Bias Error (Samples)

0.01

0.6
0
0.4

-0.01
0.2

-0.02 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
(a) Subsample Delay (Samples) (b) Subsample Delay (Samples)

Fig. 4. Comparison of parabolic and cosine curve-fitting techniques. Performance is illustrated for both subsample (a) bias error and (b) standard
deviation.

-3
x 10
0.03 2
40 MHz 40 MHz
Standard Deviation (Samples)

0.02 60 MHz 60 MHz

Bias Error (Samples)

80 MHz 1.5 80 MHz

0.01

0 1

-0.01
0.5
-0.02

-0.03 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
(a) Subsample Delay (Samples) (b) Subsample Delay (Samples)

Fig. 5. Comparison of the (a) bias error and (b) standard deviation of subsample spectral estimates as a function of the data sampling frequency.
104 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108

-3
x 10
0.03 2
2.0 mm 2.0 mm

Standard Deviation (Samples)

0.02 3.0 mm 3.0 mm
Bias Error (Samples)

4.0 mm 1.5 4.0 mm

0.01

0 1

-0.01
0.5
-0.02

-0.03 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
(a) Subsample Delay (Samples) (b) Subsample Delay (Samples)

Fig. 6. Comparison of the (a) bias error and (b) standard deviation of subsample spectral estimates as a function of the spatial window length.

-3
x 10
0.03 2
1024 1024
0.02 2048 Standard Deviation (Samples) 2048
Bias Error (Samples)

4096 1.5 4096

0.01

0 1

-0.01
0.5
-0.02

-0.03 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
(a) Subsample Delay (Samples) (b) Subsample Delay (Samples)

Fig. 7. Comparison of the (a) bias error and (b) standard deviation of subsample spectral estimates as a function of the Fourier transform length.

(a) (b) (c)

30 30 30
NCC
25 SSD 25 25
SAD
20 20 20
SNRe

SNRe
SNRe

15 15 15

10 10 10

5 5 5

0 0 0
-1 0 1 2 -1 0 1 2 -1 0 1 2
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Applied Strain (%) Applied Strain (%) Applied Strain (%)

30 30 30

25 25 25

20 20 20
SNRe

SNRe

SNRe

15 15 15

10 10 10

5 5 5

0 0 0
-1 0 1 2 -1 0 1 2 -1 0 1 2
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Applied Strain (%) Applied Strain (%) Applied Strain (%)

Fig. 8. Simulation Strain Filters depicting spectral densities of (a) 1024, (b) 2048 and (c) 4096 without and with parabolic-fit interpolation for spectral
subsample shift estimation, top and bottom rows, respectively.
 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108 105

The function of spatial window length on subsample maintaining the overall SNR (in contrast to what was ob-
estimation accuracy is illustrated in Fig. 6. Though larger served when increasing the sampling frequency).
spatial windows are known to improve the resolution of
the spectral estimates, the results of Fig. 6 indicate that this 2.3. Spectral elastographic analysis
increase in spectral resolution is partially offset by an in-
crease in the subsample bias errors and standard devia- Using the simulation program described in Section 2.1,
tions. For a fixed set of parameters, increasing the Strain Filters were derived using the spectral NCC-, SSD-
spectral resolution in ultrasound signals/images corre- and SAD-based strain estimation techniques in order
sponds to an increase in fidelity (given a peaky spectrum to analyze the tradeoffs between spectral density with-
that is typical in ultrasound backscattered echo signals), out and with subsample estimation using a parabolic-fit
which can decrease the spectral correlation for a given
lag value. This decrease in spectral correlation results in a
degradation of the subsample estimator performance,
which is analogous to that observed in subsample time-de- B
lay estimators [17].
The results of Fig. 7 illustrate the effects of spectral den-
sity on subsample estimation performance. As these results I
demonstrate, increasing the Fourier transform length (and
corresponding spectral window size) increases the perfor-
mance of the subsample estimator in terms of minimizing
both the bias errors and standard deviation of the subsam-
ple estimates. This is as expected since increasing the spec- Fig. 9. Illustration of a typical inhomogeneous phantom image and the
tral density ultimately results in an increase in the corresponding background (B) and inclusion (I) regions employed for the
correlation between the reference and delayed spectra while CNRe analysis.

Fig. 10. Elastographic results obtained using an isoechoic phantom. Elastograms were derived using the spectral (a) NCC, (b) SSD and (c) SAD strain
estimators and for 0.5%, 1.0% and 5.0% applied strains, top to bottom, respectively. All elastograms were processed using spatial window lengths of 3 mm
with 80% overlap, a spectral density of 1024 and no spectral subsample shift estimation.
106 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108

interpolated curve (Fig. 8). The results depicted in the top
row of Fig. 8 demonstrate the overall improvement in SNRe
as the spectral density is increased without the use of sub-
sample estimation (albeit not statistically significant,
p > 0.29). Likewise, the results found in the bottom row
of Fig. 8 show the same increase in spectral density but com-
pounded with the use of subsample estimation. These re-
sults show that there is no significant difference between
the Strain Filter responses obtained using the various spec-
tral densities and parabolic-fit interpolation in order to im-
prove spectral shift estimation accuracy (p > 0.92).
Collectively, the results indicate that when a subsample esti-
mation method is not utilized, a high spectral density is
needed in order to maximize strain estimator performance.
Furthermore, an additional enhancement in performance
(in terms of SNRe) can be achieved by employing spectral
subsample shift estimation even at low spectral densities.
3. Experimental methods and results
A modified HDI-1000 scanner (Philips Medical Systems,
Bothell, WA, USA) allowing access to RF data was used
with a 7.5 MHz (60% fractional BW) linear array trans-
ducer. The transducer was secured and stabilized using a
quick-release holder that was mounted to the distal end
of a mechanized arm. This set-up allowed 3-D motion of
transducer and application of precise axial compressions
controlled through a laptop computer and was physically
attached to a portable rack-based system for stability. All
collected RF echo data were digitized at 30 MHz and then
upsampled to 60 MHz prior to processing.
Spectral strain estimates were computed from windowed
pre- and post-compression (following applied strains of
0.5%, 1.0% and 5.0%) RF A-line pairs using the approach
described in Section 2.1. Following the processing of all A-
lines in the image plane, a strain image was displayed
(termed an elastogram). All elastograms were post-pro-
cessed using a 5-by-5 median spatial filter in order to sup-
press any extreme strain estimates.
A gelatin-based heterogeneous phantom (10 · 10 ·
10 cm3) was used to evaluate the spectral shift-based strain
estimation techniques described in Section 2.1. The phan-
tom contained a 0.5 cm (in radius) isoechoic stiff cylindrical
inclusion that was approximately three times stiffer than
the surrounding homogeneous material and was produced
using a previously described technique [20]. Estimator
performance was quantified using the CNRe as follows
[21]:

Fig. 11. Elastographic results obtained using an isoechoic phantom. Elastograms were derived using the spectral (a) NCC, (b) SSD and (c) SAD strain
estimators and for 0.5%, 1.0% and 5.0% applied strains, top to bottom, respectively. All elastograms were processed using spatial window lengths of 3 mm
with 80% overlap, a spectral density of 1024 and parabolic-fit spectral subsample shift estimation.
 K. Hoyt et al. / Ultrasonics 44 (2006) 99–108
Table 2
Corresponding elastographic contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRe) (dB) for the
images presented in Fig. 11
Applied strain (%) Spectral shift estimator
NCC SSD
0.5 15.5 15.5
1.0 17.9 17.9
5.0 16.4 16.0
2
2ðlB  lI Þ
CNRe ¼
r2B þ r2I
where l denotes the mean strain estimates, the variance of
the strain estimates, and the subscripts I and B indicate
homogenous image regions of the inclusion and back-
ground, respectively. All CNRe values were obtained from
phantom regions corresponding to those illustrated in
Fig. 9 where the regions of interest were positioned to
encompass the same A-lines and the effects of attenuation
were assumed negligible.
Elastograms were processed without (Fig. 10) and with
(Fig. 11) employing spectral subsample estimation (i.e.,
parabolic-fit interpolation). Notice that without using sub-
sample estimation, the strain estimates are limited to dis-
crete values defined by the spectral density. Though these
quantization-based strain estimation errors become less
pronounced for higher applied strain owing to in part the
improved SNRe (see Fig. 8a), image quality is still discern-
ibly compromised (see Fig. 10). Conversely, when para-
bolic-fit interpolation is utilized in order to provide
subsample spectral shift estimation, no such degradation
is observed in the elastograms (see Fig. 11) owing to a
decrease in strain estimation noise for the applied strain
values investigated (see Fig. 8a). The CNRe values corre-
sponding to the elastograms presented in Fig. 11 are sum-
marized in Table 2. Although the SAD-based spectral
elastograms (Fig. 11c) exhibit a lower strain contrast than
the NCC- or SSD-based approaches (albeit not statistically
significant, p > 0.51), the spectral NCC and SSD elasto-
graphic methods produce elastograms with comparable
image contrast (see Table 2). Notice that the relative per-
formance of the spectral shift estimators utilized in these
experiments was accurately predicted using the simplified
1-D elastographic simulation (see Section 2).
4. Conclusions
A comparison of various spectral strain estimators, cou-
pled without and with subsample shift estimation, was per-
formed using simulations and experiments. It was shown
that results obtained using the spectral SSD-based elasto-
graphic method demonstrated no marked difference when
compared to those obtained using the more computation-
ally costly NCC-based approach. To date, the latter has
been the preferred function in several spectral elastographic
reports [13,15]. Moreover, the spectral SAD-based elasto-
107
graphic method, though computationally the least burden-
some method evaluated, failed to exhibit comparable
performance to that of the NCC- and SSD-based tech-
niques. Based on minimizing computational complexity,
SAD it is concluded that a (low density) spectral SSD strain esti-
13.8 mator coupled with parabolic-based subsample estimation
17.2 is the preferred choice for spectral elastography.
16.1
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Institutes of
ð11Þ
Health (USA) Program Project Grant P01-CA64597.
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