Experimental results in ultrasonic tomography using a ¯ltered backpropagation algorithm

This paper describes an experimental study in diffraction tomography whose main goal was to determine experimentally the performance of the filtered backpropagation algorithm in ultrasound tomography. We have built a simple water tank with a plane wave source and a scanning hydrophone. The test objects have been cylindrical and of a relatively simple structure and made of acrylic and silicone rubber. The resulting reconstructions show that the structure and position of the objects are well reproduced. The velocity of the objects can also be well reproduced if the velocity contrast is not too large. In medical imaging, it is most important to see the structure, and since the velocity change in biological tissue is small, the method should be well suited for medical imaging. 0 1991 Academic Press, I”=. Key words: Backpropaga tion; diffraction; medical; tomography; ultrasound 1