  Ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) is an emerging imaging modality for
breast imaging that can produce quantitative images that depict the acoustic
properties of tissues. Computer-simulation studies, also known as virtual
imaging trials, provide researchers with an economical and convenient route to
systematically explore imaging system designs and image reconstruction methods.
When simulating an imaging technology intended for clinical use, it is
essential to employ realistic numerical phantoms that can facilitate the
objective, or task-based, assessment of image quality. Moreover, when computing
objective image quality measures, an ensemble of such phantoms should be
employed that display the variability in anatomy and object properties that is
representative of the to-be-imaged patient cohort. Such stochastic phantoms for
clinically relevant applications of USCT are currently lacking. In this work, a
methodology for producing realistic three-dimensional (3D) numerical breast
phantoms for enabling clinically relevant computer-simulation studies of USCT
breast imaging is presented. By extending and adapting an existing stochastic
3D breast phantom for use withUSCT, methods for creating ensembles of numerical
acoustic breast phantoms are established. These breast phantoms will possess
clinically relevant variations in breast size, composition, acoustic
properties, tumor locations, and tissue textures. To demonstrate the use of the
phantoms in virtual USCT studies, two brief case studies are presented that
address the development and assessment of image reconstruction procedures.
Examples of breast phantoms produced by use of the proposed methods and a
collection of 52 sets of simulated USCT measurement data have been made open
source for use in image reconstruction development
