Comparison of conventional multiple line acquisition with plane wave and diverging wave imaging for cardiac applications: a simulation study

When imaging the heart, multiple line acquisition (MLA) is commonly used to increase the frame rate. For a typical phased array, frame rate can be increased by a factor of 4 using 4MLA with a less focused transmit beam. Alternatively, plane wave or diverging wave could be used allowing for 16MLA. However, transmit compounding is required in order to keep the spatial resolution acceptable resulting in a gain in frame rate similar to the one of a 4MLA system. The aim of this study was therefore to directly contrast the performance of a conventional 4MLA system to a plane wave and diverging wave imaging system by computer simulation. The performance of different imaging systems were investigated by quantitatively evaluating the characteristics of their two-way beams (i.e. -6dB beam width, side lobes to main lobe energy ratio, main lobe centralization and side lobes asymmetry). The results showed that the conventional 4MLA and plane wave imaging were very competitive imaging strategies while operating at a si...