Ultrasound Transmission Beam Computed Tomography for the In-situ Sound Speed Quantitative Diagnostic Imaging of Abdominal Tissue

腹部声速断层成像使用通过传输的旅行时间数据在身体表面上进行了研究。为此，使用100 kHz范围的低频波来减少体内介质内的波衰减。研究了一种方法，用于重建图像的最小可能数量的路径数据周围的腹部表面。具体地说，应避免来自强散射脊髓的数据。为了满足这一要求，引入了平滑路径代数重建技术。该方法的有效性进行了检查的数值合成的数据和实验测量数据的幻影标本和实际的人体主体。结果表明，腹部断层扫描声速图像可以成功地获得通过准备只有32个换能器位置在周围的腹部表面和它们的组合的观察路径数据的数量少于100，以及通过避免数据交叉的脊髓。此外，脂肪区域被提取具有低于阈值的声速，以证明该方法用于代谢综合征诊断的可能性。

Abdominal sound speed tomographic imaging using through-transmission travel time data on the body surface was investigated. To this end, a hundred kHz range low-frequency wave was used to reduce the wave attenuation within an inner body medium. A method was investigated for the reconstruction of the image with the smallest possible number of path data around the abdominal surface. Specifically, the data from a strong scattering spinal cord should be avoided. To fulfill the requirement, the smoothed path algebraic reconstruction technique was introduced. The validity of this method was examined both on the numerically synthesized data and the experimentally measured data for the phantom specimen and actual human subject. It was shown that an abdominal tomographic sound speed image could be successfully obtained by preparing only 32 transducer locations at the circumference around the abdominal surface and their combination of less than 100 number of observation path data as well as by avoiding the data intersecting the spinal cord. In addition, fat regions were extracted having a sound speed lower than the threshold value to demonstrate the possibility of this method for metabolic syndrome diagnosis.