Combining rigid and nonrigid registration based on B-spline in ultrasound elastography

Objective: To design an ultrasound elastography method based on B mode ultrasound images. Methods: The method combined rigid and nonrigid registration based on B-spline were used to estimate the displacement field from the pre and post-compression B mode ultrasound images. The displacement captured the global and local motion of the B mode images. The axial strain was computed with gradient calculation of axial displacement field. Results: Strain information was obtained correctly through estimating the displacement field from the pre and post-compression B mode phtantom images. Conclusion: The proposed method can correctly obtain the strain information, therefore has potential clinical value.