Cross Data Set Generalization of Ultrasound Image Augmentation using Representation Learning: A Case Study

Data augmentation is a common method to make deep learning assessible on limited data sets. However, classical image augmentation methods result in highly unrealistic images on ultrasound data. Another approach is to utilize learning-based augmentation methods, e.g. based on variational autoencoders or generative adversarial networks. However, a large amount of data is necessary to train these models, which is typically not available in scenarios where data augmentation is needed. One solution for this problem could be a transfer of augmentation models between different medical imaging data sets. In this work, we present a qualitative study of the cross data set generalization performance of different learning-based augmentation methods for ultrasound image data. We could show that knowledge transfer is possible in ultrasound image augmentation and that the augmentation partially results in semantically meaningful transfers of structures, e.g. vessels, across domains.