Ultrasound tomography of the breast using linear arrays

An approach for tomographic reconstructions of the sound velocity distribution and attenuation coefficient distribution in the breast using linear arrays is proposed. The time-of-flight and attenuation data are acquired by a linear array positioned at the top of a compressed breast and a metal plate is placed at the bottom as a reflector. The refraction effects on the attenuation data are compensated using a technique based on the angular spectrum method. A reconstruction algorithm based on a convex programming formulation and incorporating the segmentation information from the B-mode image is used. The experimental setup includes a phantom made of materials mimicking different tissues in the breast. Results show that obtaining the sound velocity distribution and attenuation coefficient distribution is feasible with the proposed algorithm under current B-mode imaging setup with linear arrays. Such an imaging method has the potential of enhancing the breast cancer detection.