Attenuation reconstruction for 3D Ultrasound Computer Tomography

We develop a new ultrasound-based method for early breast cancer detection. Our 3D Ultrasound Computer Tomograph (3D USCT) uses unfocussed ultrasound to acquire high resolution images of the breast. The system provides three imaging modalities: reflection, speed of sound and attenuation. In this paper we focus on attenuation images. We apply the so called instantaneous frequency method for attenuation estimation and compare the estimation results with speed of sound images. Furthermore, we discuss reconstruction problems arising and show first attenuation images obtained using our method.