Breast imaging with acoustic tomography: a comparative study with MRI

摘要

The objective of this study is to investigate a potential low-cost-alternative to MRI, based on acoustic tomography. Using MRI as the gold standard, our goals are to assess the performance of acoustic tomography in (ⅰ) depicting normal breast anatomy, (ⅱ) imaging cancerous lesions and (ⅲ) accentuating lesions relative to background tissue using thresholding techniques. Fifteen patients were imaged with MRI and with an acoustic tomography prototype. A qualitative visual comparison of the MRI and prototype images was used to verify anatomical similarities. These similarities suggest that the prototype can image fibrous stroma, parenchyma and fatty tissues, with similar sensitivity to MRI. The prototype was also shown to be able to image masses but equivalency in mass sensitivity with MRI could not be established because of the small numbers of patients and the prototype's limited scanning range. The range of thresholds required to establish tumor volume equivalency suggests that a universal threshold for isolating masses relative to background tissue is possible with acoustic tomography. Thresholding techniques promise to accentuate masses relative to background anatomy which may prove clinically useful in potential screening applications. Future work will utilize larger trials to verify these preliminary conclusions.