The backscatter coefficient (BSC) quantifies the frequency-dependent reflectivity of tissues. Accurate estimation of the BSC is only possible with the knowledge of the attenuation coefficient slope (ACS) of the tissues under examination. In this study, the use of attenuation maps constructed using full angular spatial compounding (FASC) is proposed for attenuation compensation when imaging integrated BSCs. Experimental validation of the proposed approach was obtained using two cylindrical physical phantoms with off-centered inclusions having different ACS and BSC values than the background, and in a phantom containing an ex vivo chicken breast sample embedded in an agar matrix. With the phantom data, three different ACS maps were employed for attenuation compensation: (1) a ground truth ACS map constructed using insertion loss techniques, (2) the estimated ACS map using FASC attenuation imaging, and (3) a uniform ACS map with a value of 0.5 dBcm^{\protect \relax \special {t4ht=−}1}MHz^{\protect \relax \special {t4ht=−}1}, which is commonly used to represent attenuation in soft tissues. Comparable results were obtained when using the ground truth and FASC-estimated ACS maps in term of inclusion detectability and estimation accuracy, with averaged fractional error below 2.8 dB in both phantoms. Conversely, the use of the homogeneous ACS map resulted in higher levels of fractional error ($>10$ dB), which demonstrates the importance of an accurate attenuation compensation. The results with the ex vivo tissue sample were consistent with the observations using the physical phantoms, with the FASC-derived ACS map providing comparable BSC images to those formed using the ground truth ACS map and more accurate than those BSC images formed using a uniform ACS. These results suggest that BSCs can be reliably estimated using FASC when a self-consistent attenuation compensation stemming from prior estimation of an accurate ACS map is used.

反向散射系数 (BSC) 量化了组织的频率相关反射率。只有在了解被检查组织的衰减系数斜率 (ACS) 的情况下，才能准确估计 BSC。在这项研究中，建议使用使用全角空间复合 (FASC) 构建的衰减图在对集成 BSC 进行成像时进行衰减补偿。使用两个圆柱形物理模型获得了所提出方法的实验验证，该模型具有与背景不同的 ACS 和 BSC 值的偏心夹杂物，并且在包含离体的模型中嵌入琼脂基质中的鸡胸肉样品。使用幻影数据，三个不同的 ACS 图用于衰减补偿：（1）使用插入损耗技术构建的地面真实 ACS 图，（2）使用 FASC 衰减成像估计的 ACS 图，以及（3）统一的 ACS 图0.5 dBcm ^{\protect \relax \special {t4ht=−}1} MHz ^{\protect \relax \special {t4ht=−}1}的值，通常用于表示软组织中的衰减。当使用地面实况和 FASC 估计的 ACS 地图时，在包含物可检测性和估计精度方面获得了可比较的结果，两个模型的平均分数误差低于 2.8 dB。相反，使用同质 ACS 图会导致更高水平的分数误差（$>10$dB），这证明了精确衰减补偿的重要性。离体组织样本的结果与使用物理模型的观察结果一致，FASC 衍生的 ACS 图提供的 BSC 图像与使用地面实况 ACS 图形成的图像相当，并且比使用统一 ACS 形成的 BSC 图像更准确. 这些结果表明，当使用源自对准确 ACS 图的先前估计的自洽衰减补偿时，可以使用 FASC 可靠地估计 BSC。