Research Project
2423583
One woman in 9 will contract breast cancer. Early diagnosis and treatment increases survival rates. A unique feature of our proposed approach is the ultrasound modalities plus x-ray mammography can be obtained in the same scanning machine and the respective images can registered fused and combined. We will demonstrate the following modalities on a purchased NeoVision SONOPSY scanner: 2-d refraction projection, 2-D adsorption projection, and 2-D and 3-D scattering number density images. This machine presently performs ultrasound guided breast biopsy and makes 3-D reflectivity images with about 1.6 mm spatial resolution within a 200 by 300 by 40 voxel volume in one minute. We will demonstrate the improved spatial resolution obtained with phase aberration correction and larger apertures on our 5-ring, 26 segment, annular array in our lb scanner, as preparation for phase 2 SBIR upgrading the NeoVision scanner to 0.57 mm resolution by incorporating F-1.33 annular arrays. We will also simulate a local, 3-D, refractive index, inverse imaging mode for phase 2 SBIR development. These multiple images can be combined in neural nets or probability-of-cancer image. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Ultrasound, imaging, synthetic-focus, software, breast, cancer, inverse scattering.
