Correspondence - Characterization of the effective performance of a high-frequency annular-array-based imaging system using anechoic-pipe phantoms.

A resolution integral (RI) method based on anechoic- pipe, tissue-mimicking phantoms was used to compare the detection capabilities of high-frequency imaging systems based on a single-element transducer, a state-of-the-art 256-element linear array, or a 5-element annular array. All transducers had a central frequency of 40 MHz with similar conventionally measured axial and lateral resolutions (about 50 and 85 μm, respectively). Using the RI metric, the annular array achieved the highest performance (RI = 60), followed by the linear array (RI = 47), and the single-element transducer (RI = 24). Results showed that the RI metric could be used to efficiently quantify the effective transducer performance and compare the image quality of different systems.