Vibro-acoustic tissue mammography

A novel method for detection and imaging of microcalcifications in breast tissue is presented. The method, called vibro-acoustography, uses the radiation force of ultrasound to vibrate tissue at low (kHz) frequency and utilizes the resulting response to produce images that are related to the hardness of the tissue. The method is tested on human breast tissues. The resulting vibro-acoustographic images are in agreement with corresponding X-ray mammography images of the specimens. The existence of microcalcifications in locations indicated by vibro-acoustography is confirmed by histology. Microcalcifications as small as 110 /spl mu/m in diameter are detected by this method. Resulting vibro-acoustographic images show microcalcifications with high contrast with respect to the background soft tissue. Structures such as dense sclerotic tissue do not seem to interfere with detection of microcalcifications.