Method for automatic detection of defective ultrasound linear array transducers based on uniformity assessment of clinical images - A case study.

The purpose of the present study was to test an idea of and describe a concept of a novel method of detecting defects related to horizontal nonuniformities in ultrasound equipment. The method is based on the analysis of ultrasound images collected directly from the clinical workflow. In total over 31000 images from three ultrasound scanners from two vendors were collected retrospectively from a database.

Comparison of the low-contrast detectability of two ultrasound systems using a grayscale phantom.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relevance of using a phantom to simulate a clinical situation where small low contrast objects are embedded in relatively homogeneous organs in order to discriminate between different ultrasound machines, taking into account human observer variability. One high-end and one general ultrasound machine using the same probe were included. Images containing 4 and 6.