Response to Comment on Vaknine,R. and Lorenz,W.J. Lateral Filtering of Medical Ultrasonic B-Scans before Image Generation,Ultrasonic Imaging 6,152–158 (1984)

The technique presented in our paper was not intended to process the random fluctuations in received echo amplitudes nor the effect of the demodulation process on B-scan image resolution. It is a method which deconvolves the B-scan image data only in the lateral direction, before image generation, with the assumptions that led to Eq. (1) in our paper. The axial resolution is assumed to be good compared to the poor lateral resolution and the point spread function considered has a form of the normal distribution function [1].

As Dr. Dickinson mentions in his comment, the speckle process can be modeled as a linear convolution similar to that of conventional image formation and the low contrast resolution is not improved if the deconvolution in the lateral direction is performed before or after demodulation.

I agree that the low contrast resolution in B-scan images can be improved if a deconvolution in the axial direction is followed by lateral deconvolution. It would be inappropriate to perform an axial deconvolution without taking into consideration the deconvolution in the lateral direction to improve the poor lateral resolution. Our lateral filtering method has been applied to B-scan image data which were not previously processed by axial deconvolution. It can certainly be applied after axial deconvolution and elimination of the demodulation process.