Ultrasound tomography imaging with waveform sound speed: parenchymal changes in women undergoing tamoxifen therapy

Abstract

Ultrasound tomography (UST) is an emerging modality that can offer quantitative measurements of breast density. Recent breakthroughs in UST image reconstruction involve the use of a waveform reconstruction as opposed to a ray-based reconstruction. The sound speed (SS) images that are created using the waveform reconstruction have a much higher image quality. These waveform images offer improved resolution and contrasts between regions of dense and fatty tissues. As part of a study that was designed to assess breast density changes using UST sound speed imaging among women undergoing tamoxifen therapy, UST waveform sound speed images were then reconstructed for a subset of participants. These initial results show that changes to the parenchymal tissue can more clearly be visualized when using the waveform sound speed images. Additional quantitative testing of the waveform images was also started to test the hypothesis that waveform sound speed images are a more robust measure of breast density than ray-based reconstructions. Further analysis is still needed to better understand how tamoxifen affects breast tissue.

Multicenter Study of Whole Breast Stiffness Imaging by Ultrasound Tomography (SoftVue) for Characterization of Breast Tissues and Masses

“…UST is an emerging form of ABUS that follows many years of research and development by a variety of groups [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Several clinical evaluations of the SoftVue UST system (Delphinus Medical Technologies, Novi, MI, USA) have been reported [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], but this is the first that details stiffness outcomes using a proprietary version of bulk modulus that depicts relative tissue stiffness from the entire visualized breast, including underlying masses. We present these multicenter trial results of whole-breast stiffness imaging by SoftVue, with the goal of characterizing fat, fibroglandular tissue, benign and malignant masses.…”

Enhancement of Multimodal Microwave-Ultrasound Breast Imaging Using a Deep-Learning Technique

“…This is indeed the case for the inverse problems associated with quantitative microwave imaging (MWI) [1] and ultrasound imaging (USI) [2,3]. Both MWI and USI attempt a quantitative reconstruction of the spatial distribution of the physical properties affecting the wavefield processes associated with each of these modalities.…”

“…Quantitative techniques take advantage of the different dielectric properties of normal breast tissue (e.g., skin, adipose, and fibroglandular) and cancerous tumors [4,7]. The main approach for solving ill-posed inverse problems associated with quantitative MW/US breast imaging are computationally expensive iterative methods where the inversion model consists of a numerical solution of a complex electromagnetic or ultrasound scattering problem [3,6]. While such iterative methods have improved dramatically over the years, providing improved resolution and accuracy of the reconstructed properties, as well as more efficient implementations, there are still many fundamental trade-offs between these three aspects due to operational, financial, and physical constraints [6].…”

Efficient Segmentation of a Breast in B-Mode Ultrasound Tomography Using Three-Dimensional GrabCut (GC3D)

“…Breast segmentation also improves quantitative tissue analysis [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ] and other follow-up applications [ 14 , 15 ]. It has far reaching consequences in the longitudinal analysis of UST images to facilitate the quantification of breast tissue growth during treatment delivery [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], the characterization of physical breast density using intra-patient alignment of UST and MR images [ 20 ], and the rendering of breast tumors by co-registration of B-mode images with transmission, attenuation, MR or mammographic images [ 21 , 22 ]. For instance, facilitated by accurate segmentation of the breast in B-mode UST images, parenchymal changes in women undergoing tamoxifen therapy can be quantified and visualized with deformation field in high precision, up to 0.25 mm [ 16 , 17 , 19 ].…”

“…It has far reaching consequences in the longitudinal analysis of UST images to facilitate the quantification of breast tissue growth during treatment delivery [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], the characterization of physical breast density using intra-patient alignment of UST and MR images [ 20 ], and the rendering of breast tumors by co-registration of B-mode images with transmission, attenuation, MR or mammographic images [ 21 , 22 ]. For instance, facilitated by accurate segmentation of the breast in B-mode UST images, parenchymal changes in women undergoing tamoxifen therapy can be quantified and visualized with deformation field in high precision, up to 0.25 mm [ 16 , 17 , 19 ]. Therefore, women with or without mass lesions and patients receiving treatment, all can benefit from B-mode UST image segmentation to monitor the tissue growth, to detect suspicions regions, or to quantify the treatment outcome.…”