Congratulations to Md Ashikuzzaman! His first-author paper entitled MixTURE: L1-Norm-Based Mixed Second-Order Continuity in Strain Tensor Ultrasound Elastography was accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.
This work is the first to introduce an L1-norm-based second-order regularizer in a mechanically-inspired total strain tensor imaging framework named — L1-norm Mixed derivative for Total UltRasound Elastography — or, L1-MixTURE when abbreviated. Displacement tracking of ultrasound images can be implemented by optimizing a cost function consisting of a data term, a mechanical congruency term, and first- and second-order continuity terms. This approach recently provided a promising solution to two-dimensional axial and lateral displacement tracking in ultrasound strain elastography. However, the associated second-order regularizer only considers the unmixed second derivatives and disregards the mixed derivatives, thereby providing suboptimal noise suppression and limiting possibilities for total strain tensor imaging. We improved axial, lateral, axial shear, and lateral shear strain estimation quality by formulating and optimizing a novel L1-norm-based second-order regularizer that penalizes both mixed and unmixed displacement derivatives. Results are promising to advance the state-of-the-art in elastography-guided diagnostic and interventional decisions.
Citation: Ashikuzzaman M, Sharma A, Venkatayogi N, Oluyemi E, Myers K, Ambinder E, Rivaz H, Bell MAL, MixTURE: L1-Norm-Based Mixed Second-Order Continuity in Strain Tensor Ultrasound Elastography, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control (accepted August 13, 2024) [pdf]