A Two-Dimensional Array Receiver for Reducing Refraction Artifacts in Ultrasonic Computed Tomography of Attenuation

Abstrucf-Conventional ultrasonic computed tomography (UCT) of attenuation yields images having significant refraction artifacts. A large-aperture two-dimensional receiving array has been fabricated and used to acquire UCT attenuation data. Reconstructed images demonstrate signi6cantly decreased corruption by refraction. The array images exhibit reducededge-enhancement artifacts, although artifacts are still significant in the worst cases. The artifact reduction should allow for reasonably meaningful estimates of attenuation coefficient since, for example, attenuation coefficient from very refraction-dependent single-element UCT has correlated with breast lesion pathology.

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