An Improved Breast Ultrasound Tomography Algorithm Using Adaptive Time Gain Compensation

Abstract

In order to solve the problem of ultrasonic transmission attenuation in breast soft tissue, an ultrasound tomography algorithm based on time gain compensation (TGC) is presented. It is imaging of the breast with cylindrical motion of Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (PMUT) linear array. The attenuation coefficients of the water, breast and mass were automatically evaluated by the spectral cross-correlation. Field II is used for simulation analysis, plus the detailed extraction process of attenuation coefficients and the influencing factors are provided. According to the acquired attenuation coefficients, and the pulse echo signal is compensated using TGC. The horizontal slice image is obtained. Experimental results show that this algorithm can effectively evaluate the attenuation coefficient of soft tissue. Besides, the size, location and boundary of breast masses can be detected. At the same time, using software to realize attenuation compensation is beneficial to the development of portable medical equipment.