Ultrasound waveform tomography method and system

A method for generating an enhanced image of a volume of tissue, the method comprising:

• with a transducer comprising an array of ultrasound transmitters and an array of ultrasound receivers and configured to surround the volume of tissue, emitting acoustic waveforms toward the volume of tissue with the array of ultrasound transmitters, wherein the acoustic waveforms comprise a frequency spectrum comprising a plurality of frequency components within the frequency spectrum sufficient to resolve a lesion within the volume of tissue;
• detecting, with the array of ultrasound receivers, a set of acoustic signals derived from acoustic waveforms transmitted through the volume of tissue;
• at a computing system in communication with the transducer, generating, from the set of acoustic signals, an initial sound speed model representing a distribution of sound speed across a region of the volume of tissue;
• at the computing system, extracting a subset of the frequency spectrum, including a set of the frequency components within the frequency spectrum, from the set of acoustic signals;
• at the computing system, generating a first simulated wavefield of a set of simulated wavefields with a first frequency component of the set of frequency components within the frequency spectrum, according to a forward modeling process;
• at the computing system, generating an updated model representing an updated distribution of sound speed across the region of the volume of tissue based upon a solution to an inverse problem generated with the first simulated wavefield;
• iteratively refining the updated model at a plurality of subsequent frequencies within the set of frequency components with solutions to the inverse problem, wherein the solutions are generated with the set of simulated wavefields associated with the set of frequency components within the frequency spectrum until a threshold condition is satisfied, thereby producing a final sound speed model;
• and
• at a display in communication with the computing system, rendering a sound speed image, generated from the final sound speed model of the volume of tissue.