Solgi Razieh, Ghadiri Hossein
MSc, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
MSc, Preclinical Lab, Core Facility, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
J Biomed Phys Eng. 2022 Aug 1;12(4):349-358. doi: 10.31661/jbpe.v0i0.2107-1367. eCollection 2022 Aug.
In body tissues, tumors generally have different speeds of sound (SOS) than normal tissues. In this respect, ultrasound computed tomography (UCT) can generate a cross-sectional SOS map as an innovative ultrasound imaging method. This technique can produce images with a resolution of millimeters and a high signal-to-noise ratio.
This study aimed to improve UCT image quality without increasing breast cancer screening and diagnosis time.
In this analytical study, a ring-shaped UCT breast imaging system was simulated using the K-wave toolbox of MATLAB. The system has a 20 cm diameter and 256 ultrasonic piezoelectrics placed in the ring's circumference. Different beamforming techniques imaged two designed phantoms (i.e., resolution and contrast), and the resolution and contrast to noise ratio (CNR) were calculated.
The results of resolution phantom imaging without any beamforming showed that only bars with the value of 0.125 and 0.167 lp/mm were distinguishable, and the 0.1 bars were not recognizable in the imaging. In addition, increasing the number of transmitters led to no noticeable change in resolution for 0.125 and 0.167 lp/mm bars. In all beamforming techniques for imaging the contrast phantom, the CNR parameter up to an object with a diameter of 8 mm increases with increasing diameter without any change.
The beamforming technique using three simultaneous transmitters improved the resolution by about 1 mm compared to the normal strategy. In addition to high-contrast images, beamforming with 9 simultaneous transmitters led to a preferable technique.
在人体组织中,肿瘤的声速(SOS)通常与正常组织不同。在这方面,超声计算机断层扫描(UCT)作为一种创新的超声成像方法,可以生成横断面SOS图。该技术能够产生分辨率达毫米级且信噪比高的图像。
本研究旨在在不增加乳腺癌筛查和诊断时间的情况下提高UCT图像质量。
在这项分析研究中,使用MATLAB的K-wave工具箱模拟了一个环形UCT乳腺成像系统。该系统直径为20厘米,在环的圆周上放置了256个超声压电元件。不同的波束形成技术对两个设计好的体模(即分辨率体模和对比度体模)进行成像,并计算分辨率和对比度噪声比(CNR)。
未进行任何波束形成的分辨率体模成像结果显示,在成像中仅能分辨出值为0.125和0.167 lp/mm的条带,而0.1 lp/mm的条带无法识别。此外,增加发射源数量对0.125和0.167 lp/mm条带的分辨率没有显著影响。在所有用于对比度体模成像的波束形成技术中,对于直径达8毫米的物体,CNR参数随直径增加而增大,无任何变化。
与常规策略相比,使用三个同步发射源的波束形成技术使分辨率提高了约1毫米。除了高对比度图像外,使用九个同步发射源的波束形成技术是一种更优的技术。