Hrg. Dinah Brandner,
"Sound Field Simulation in Breast Cancer Research"
, 7-2020
Original Titel:
Sound Field Simulation in Breast Cancer Research
Sprache des Titels:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
It is estimated that one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. Key for a full recovery is early detection, which is why regular screening is recommended. Since screening by mammography or MRI is associated with risks and comparatively high costs, efforts are being made to increase the diagnostic accuracy of the noninvasive ultrasound imaging. This can be done by estimation of the acoustic properties of the different breast tissue types out of ultrasound image data, as being able to determine these properties additionally to the morphologic information, is expected to improve the diagnostic accuracy. Part of this thesis is therefore devoted to the improvements of methods for the production of phantoms with certain acoustic properties, using tissue-mimicking materials. As the majority of malignant processes are highly acoustically attenuating, formulas based on Al2O3 are characterized with respect to their absorption behavior, as this material, dependent on the chosen concentration, allows to select the attenuation parameters of a to be produced phantom. Also artificial intelligence can help in the improvement of ultrasonic diagnostic, when employed to assist the radiologist in making a diagnosis by drawing attention to even small morphologies that may seem suspicious. Using huge annotated databases and self-learning algorithms, computers can recognize trained patterns with great statistical certainty. These annotated databases are not yet available for ultrasound images or not in sufficient quality. Therefore, ultrasound simulations are indispensable, to which the second part of the thesis is devoted. Simulation software were tested for suitability of providing valid simulation results that match as closely as possible in any aspect ultrasound images obtained from clinical equipment. As it turned out k-Wave was designed to fulfill all necessary requirements, and was therefore investigated in great detail.
Forschungs-