Clinical adequacy of reconstructed image quality

Determine whether three-dimensional frequency-domain full-waveform inversion with randomly phase-encoded elementary sources produces image quality sufficient to satisfy both established and unmet clinical needs in breast ultrasound computed tomography, including high-sensitivity diagnostic imaging.

Background

The paper demonstrates numerically that fully randomized frequency-domain full-waveform inversion can reconstruct a portion of a breast phantom in a three-dimensional cylindrical geometry and detect millimetre-scale inclusions with low acoustic contrast. It also estimates that a professional CUDA implementation and parallel GPU execution could reduce reconstruction time to approximately one hour for a breast volume extending over 5 cm.

Despite these computational projections, the clinical adequacy of the resulting image quality has not been established. In particular, it remains to be determined whether the achievable resolution, contrast, artifact level, and reconstruction completeness are sufficient for both currently recognized and not-yet-met clinical requirements, especially high-sensitivity detection.

References

The computing times become then feasible for medical imaging applications and do allow for a rigorous investigation of whether image quality may or may not satisfy met and unmet clinical needs (e.g. high sensitivity).

— Towards 3D fully randomized frequency-domain reconstruction of the speed of sound in breast ultrasound computed tomography  (2610.01930 - Forte, 1 Oct 2026) in Discussion and Conclusions, Section 5