Ultrasound Transmission Tomography Imaging of Structure of Breast Elastography Phantom Compared to US, CT and MRI

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the results of ultrasound transmission tomography (UTT) imaging of the internal structure of a breast elastography phantom used for biopsy training, and compares them with the results of CT, MRI and, conventional US imaging; the results of the phantom examination were the basis for the analysis of UTT method resolution. The obtained UTT, CT and MRI images of the CIRS Model 059 breast phantom structure show comparable (in the context of size and location) heterogeneities inside it. The UTT image of distribution of the ultrasound velocity clearly demonstrates continuous changes of density. The UTT image of derivative of attenuation coefficient in relation to frequency is better for visualising sharp edges, and the UTT image of the distribution of attenuation coefficient visualises continuous and stepped changes in an indirect way. The inclusions visualized by CT have sharply delineated edges but are hardly distinguishable from the phantom gel background even with increased image contrast. MRI images of the studied phantom relatively clearly show inclusions in the structure. Ultrasonography images do not show any diversification of the structure of the phantom. The obtained examination results indicate that, if the scanning process is accelerated, ultrasound transmission tomography method can be successfully used to detect and diagnose early breast malignant lesions. Ultrasonic transmission tomography imaging can be applied in medicine for diagnostic examination of women's breasts and similarly for X-ray computed tomography, while eliminating the need to expose patients to the harmful ionising radiation.

Multigrid-Based Inversion for Volumetric Radar Imaging With Asteroid Interior Reconstruction as a Potential Application

“…Here, the entries of C are of the form C i, j = Ω ε r ϕ i ϕ j dΩ with ϕ i and ϕ j denoting piecewise linear nodal basis functions of T and Q (i) ∈ R N×n has a single nonzero entry Q (i) i,i = 1. Denoting by d (i, j) the regularized deconvolution-based solution (Section A2) of (23)-(24) with respect to h (i, j) = (∂C /∂c j )b (i) , one obtains the estimate (7), that is, the basis of the present multigrid approach. Estimate the Green's functiong satisfyingp =g * f using Tikhonov regularized deconvolution with a suitably chosen regularization parameter δ [1].…”

“…Waveform (radar) imaging is rapidly becoming a standard approach in several fields of science and technology for the constantly increasing computational resources available for an ordinary user. For example, ultrasonic/microwave detection of breast lesions has recently been approaching the reliability of the classical computed X-ray tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [7], [18].…”

Ultrasonic Mammography with Circular Transducer Array

“…Initial ultrasonic projection imaging examinations using a 1024-element circular ultrasonic transducer array were performed on the measurement stand for ultrasonic transmission tomography (Opieliński et al, 2013) by selecting parallel projections (for the chosen projection planes) from a three-dimensional set of tomographic data in divergent beam geometry (acquired during measurements of biopsy CIRS Model 052A breast phantom), and by appropriate data transformation. As a part of this study a measurement set-up with a circular ultrasonic transducer array was modified to achieve faster object scanning using parallel ultrasonic projection (Fig.…”

“…distribution of mean (projected) values of attenuation coefficient and ultrasonic wave propagation velocity, derivative of attenuation coefficient in relation to frequency, nonlinear acoustic parameter B/A). Such complex projection characteristics can be of significant importance in the process of detecting and diagnosing cancerous lesions in soft tissue, especially in women's breasts (Duck, 1990;Landini et al, 1985;Opielinski, Gudra, 2013;Opieliński et al, 2013;Yang et al, 1991).…”

Normalization of Multifocal Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Images

“…On the other hand, sector images are used in this work to increase the field of view in the lateral direction. This is an important aspect for full angle spatial compound imaging for breast cancer detection (Camacho et al, 2012;Opieliński et al, 2013;, were ARFI could be included as a complementary image modality to display tissue stiffness variations.…”