An image reconstruction algorithm for 3-D electrical impedance mammography

The Sussex MK4 electrical impedance mammography system is especially designed for 3-D breast screening. It aims to diagnose breast cancer at an early stage when it is most treatable. Planar electrodes are employed in this system. The challenge with planar electrodes is the inaccuracy and poor sensitivity in the vertical direction for 3-D imaging. An enhanced image reconstruction algorithm using a duo-mesh method is proposed to improve the vertical accuracy and sensitivity. The novel part of the enhanced image reconstruction algorithm is the correction term. To evaluate the new algorithm, an image processing based error analysis method is presented, which not only can precisely assess the error of the reconstructed image but also locate the center and outline the center and outline the shape of the objects of interest. Although the enhanced image reconstruction algorithm and the image processing based error analysis method are designed for the Sussex MK4 system, they are applicable to all electrical impedance tomography systems, regardless of the hardware design. To validate the enhanced algorithm, performance results from simulations, phantoms and patients are presented.