A Comparative Study on Depth of Penetration Measurements in Diagnostic Ultrasounds Through the Adaptive SNR Threshold Method.

Depth of penetration (DOP) has been investigated in the scientific literature as an informative parameter able to monitor over time both the sensitivity and the general performance of ultrasound (US) diagnostic systems. In common practice, this parameter may suffer from operator-related errors due to its visual assessment. Different image analysis algorithms have been proposed in the literature to address this issue. In this regard, this work evaluates the adaptive SNR threshold method (AdSTM) on six US diagnostic systems equipped with three US probe models, operating at four frequencies. Data were collected from a US phantom with two distinct zones with different attenuation coefficients. The AdSTM results were compared to the outcomes provided by the naked eye method (NEM), which was performed by five non-medical observers. Despite the small population sample of observers, the obtained results were generally consistent across methods, and suggest the implementation of a calibration procedure for AdSTM, and more extensive testing.