Various methods have been developed to measure the coefficient of volume backscatter. For these measures, correction has made for signal energy, instrumentation/transducer filtration, diffraction and bulk loss, while using various square law or log magnitude detectors. Also, tissue backscatter has been measured as a function of frequency and the statistics of the backscatter has been examined. This paper unites methods of measuring a properly scaled (unbiased) estimate of the backscatter coefficient with knowledge of the scattering statistics and frequency response using statistical communications techniques. The maximum likelihood, minimum variance, unbiased estimator for wideband measurement of backscatter is developed together with its performance. The measurement technique has strong implications for system design for measuring cyclic myocardial backscatter.
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