Rayleigh Damping Modelling for Tumor Detection using Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET)

This study develops a model based on Rayleigh Damping (RD) with potential use in breast cancer diagnostics. Displacement data of over 14,000 reference points on the breast surface from 14 breasts was captured using the Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET) system. The reference points were split into four segments and an ellipse fit utilized to calculate the work done and consequent viscous damping constant for each reference point. Fitting a model based on RD to median filtered data gave consistent results for one model coefficient across all breasts. The other coefficient was seen to have diagnostic potential when the model was fit to unfiltered data, and is the focus of this paper. The coefficient value was compared between breast segments adjacent to and containing the tumor (locations given from X-ray mammography) to those opposite the tumor. A total of 11 out of 14 breasts had a higher coefficient found in the tumor segment and all breasts had a higher coefficient in at least one adjacent segment. This method showed potential for breast specific diagnosis and tumor localisation using the DIET system