3D ultrasound computer tomography of the breast: a new era?
A promising candidate for imaging of breast cancer is ultrasound computer tomography (USCT). The main advantages of a USCT system are simultaneous recording of reproducible reflection, attenuation and speed of sound volumes, high image quality, and fast data acquisition. The here presented 3D USCT prototype realizes for the first time the full potential of such a device. It is ready for a clinical study. Full volumes of a breast can be acquired in four minutes. In this paper images acquired with a clinical breast phantom are presented. The resolution and imaged details of the reflectivity reconstruction are comparable to a 3 tesla MRI volume of the phantom. Image quality and resolution is isotropic in all three dimensions, confirming the successful implementation experimentally.
Institute for Data Processing and Electronics, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany. nicole.ruiter@kit.edu
Nicole V
NV
Ruiter
Michael
M
Zapf
Torsten
T
Hopp
Robin
R
Dapp
Ernst
E
Kretzek
Matthias
M
Birk
Benedikt
B
Kohout
Hartmut
H
Gemmeke
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014463:Ultrasonography