Feasibility research is proposed for the development of the theory of fractal geometry for application to medical ultrasonic tissue characterization and imaging. The approach provides a new viewpoint toward the problem of characterizing the complex structure of biological tissue through fractal texture measures aimed at improving the tissue discrimination capabilities of ultrasonic imaging systems. The proposed fractal analysis and imaging methods have the potential to improve the accuracy of diagnoses which are based upon textural image features such as in breast cancer detection.
Specific aims of the study are designed to extend the theory of fractals for application to ultrasonic signals and provide experimental evidence to demonstrate the tissue discrimination potential of fractal texture analysis. Data simulation algorithms and fractal texture measures will be developed to investigate the approach under ideal conditions. Signal analysis and imaging experiments using tissue simulators and in vitro biological tissues will examine the practically attainable tissue discrimination capability, complexity of implementation, and overall feasibility of the approach. If the approach exhibits discrimination potential commensurate with clinical needs, Phase II development will be devoted to integration of the methods into existing systems, or development of new systems which could fully exploit the new techniques.
