Diffraction and coherence in breast ultrasound tomography: a study with a toroidal array

Ultrasound is commonly used as an adjunct to mammography for diagnostic evaluation of suspicions arising from breast cancer screening. As an alternative to conventional sonography that uses hand-held transducers, toroidal array probes that encircle the breast immersed in a water bath have been investigated for ultrasound tomography. In this paper, two sets of experiments performed with a prototype ultrasound scanner on a phantom and a human breast in vivo are used to investigate the effects of diffraction and coherence in ultrasound tomography. Reconstructions obtained with transmission diffraction tomography (TDT) are compared with conventional reflection imaging and computerized ultrasound tomography showing a substantial improvement. The in vivo tests demonstrate that TDT can image the complex boundary of a cancer mass and suggest that it can reveal the anatomy of milk ducts and Cooper's ligaments.