Phase aberration correction by multi-stencils fast marching method using sound speed image in ultrasound computed tomography

Reflection image from ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) system can be obtained by synthetic aperture technique, however its quality is decreased by phase aberration caused by inhomogeneous media. Therefore, phase aberration correction is important to improve image quality. In this study, multi-stencils fast marching method (MSFMM) is employed for phase correction. The MSFMM is an accurate and fast solution of Eikonal equation which considers the refraction. The proposed method includes two steps. First, the MSFMM is used to compute sound propagation time from each element to each image gird point using sound speed image of USCT. Second, synthetic aperture technique is employed to obtain reflection image using the computed propagation time. To evaluate the proposed method, both numerical simulation and phantom experiment were conducted. With regard to numerical simulation, both quantitative and qualitative comparisons between reflection images with and without phase aberration correction were given. In the quantitative comparison, the diameters of point spread function (PSF) in reflection images of a two layer structure were presented. In the qualitative comparison, reflection images of simple circle and complex breast modes with phase aberration correction show higher quality than that without the correction. In respect to phantom experiment, a piece of breast phantom with artificial glandular structure inside was scanned by a USCT prototype, and the artificial glandular structure is able to be visible more clearly in the reflection image with phase aberration correction than in that without the correction. In this study, a phase aberration correction method by the MSFMM are proposed for reflection image of the USCT.