Ultrasound waveform tomography with the second-order total-generalized-variation regularization

Ultrasound waveform tomography with the total-variation regularization could improve reconstructions of tumor margins, but the reconstructions usually contain unwanted blocky artifacts. We develop a new ultrasound waveform tomography method with a second-order total-generalized-variation regularization scheme to improve tomographic reconstructions of breast tumors and remove blocky artifacts in reconstruction results. We validate our new method using numerical phantom data and real phantom data acquired using our synthetic-aperture breast ultrasound tomography system with two parallel transducer arrays. Compared to reconstructions of ultrasound waveform tomography with modified total variation regularization, our new ultrasound waveform tomography yields accurate sound-speed reconstruction results with significantly reduced artifacts.