In recent years, many research studies have been carried out on ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) for improving the detection and management of breast cancer. This paper investigates a signal pre-processing method based on frequency-shift low-pass filtering (FSLF) and least mean square adaptive filtering (LMSAF) for USCT image quality enhancement (proposed in our previous work). FSLF is designed base on Zoom Fast Fourier Transform algorithm (ZFFT) for processing the ultrasound signals in the frequency domain, while LMSAPF is based on the least mean square (LMS) algorithm in the time domain. Through the combination of the two filters, the ultrasound image is expected to have less noises and artifacts, and higher resolution and contrast. The proposed method was verified with the radio-frequency (RF) data of the nylon threads and the breast phantom captured by the USCT system developed in the Medical Ultrasound Laboratory. Experimental results show that the reconstructed images of nylon threads by the proposed method had narrower main lobe width and lower side lobe level comparing to the delay-and-sum (DAS). The background noises and artifacts could also be efficiently restrained. The reconstructed image of breast phantom by the proposed method had a higher resolution and the contrast ratio (CR) could be enhanced for about 12dB to 18dB at different region of interest (ROI).

Date Published: 13 March 2017
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 10139, Medical Imaging 2017: Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography, 1013907 (13 March 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2255655

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10139:
Medical Imaging 2017: Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography
Neb Duric; Brecht Heyde, Editor(s)