An automated breast ultrasound system for elastography

Azar, Reza Zahiri; Leung, Corina; Chen, Thomas Kuiran; Dickie, Kris; Dixon, J. Michael; Chan, Kwun-Keat; Pelissier, Laurent

doi:10.1109/ultsym.2012.0001

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…A motor rotates the dome through 360°, acquiring B-mode images at 0.5°intervals, which are then interpolated to produce volumetric ultrasound. The SonixEmbrace system has several advantages outlined by Azar et al, 9 including high lateral resolution due to the concave transducer array design, a fixed scanning volume that facilitates registration to other imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and rapid volumetric acquisition time of 2 min. The breast does not move nor is it deformed during the acquisition, and therefore, its volumetric image can be re-sliced for analysis and diagnosis.…”

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confidence: 99%

Integrating photoacoustic tomography into a multimodal automated breast ultrasound scanner

2020

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Significance: Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is a promising emergent modality for the screening and staging of breast cancer. To minimize barriers to clinical translation, it is common to develop PAT systems based upon existing ultrasound hardware, which can entail significant design challenges in terms of light delivery. This often results in inherently non-uniform fluence within the tissue and should be accounted for during image reconstruction. Aim: We aim to integrate PAT into an automated breast ultrasound scanner with minimal change to the existing system. Approach: We designed and implemented an illuminator that directs spatially non-uniform light to the tissue near the acquisition plane of the imaging array. We developed a graphics processing unit-accelerated reconstruction method, which accounts for this illumination geometry by modeling the structure of the light in the sample. We quantified the performance of this system using a custom, modular photoacoustic phantom and graphite rods embedded in chicken breast tissue. Results: Our illuminator provides a fluence of 2.5 mJ cm −2 at the tissue surface, which was sufficient to attain a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 8 dB at 2 cm in chicken breast tissue and image 0.25-mm features at depths of up to 3 cm in a medium with moderate optical scattering. Our reconstruction scheme is 200× faster than a CPU implementation; it provides a 25% increase in SNR at 2 cm in chicken breast tissue and lowers image error by an average of 31% at imaging depths >1.5 cm compared with a method that does not account for the inhomogeneity of the illumination or the transducer directivity. Conclusions: A fan-shaped illumination geometry is feasible for PAT; however, it is important to account for non-uniform fluence in illumination scenarios such as this. Future work will focus on increasing fluence and further optimizing the ultrasound hardware to improve SNR and overall image quality.

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confidence: 99%