Usefulness of ultrasonic strain measurement-based shear modulus reconstruction for diagnosis and thermal treatment

We previously reported an ultrasonic strain measurement-based one-dimensional (1-D) shear modulus reconstruction technique using a regularization method for differential diagnosis of malignancies on human superficial tissues (e.g., breast tissues). Here, ultrasonic strain measurement-based 2-D and 3-D shear modulus reconstruction techniques are described, and the 1-D technique is reviewed and subsequently applied to various human in vivo tissues, including deeply situated tissues (e.g., liver). Because soft tissues are deformed in 3-D space by externally situated arbitrary mechanical sources, the accuracy of the low-dimensional (i.e., 1-D or 2-D) reconstructions is lower to that of 3-D reconstruction due to occurrence of erroneous reconstruction artifacts (i.e., the reconstructed modulus is different than reality). These artifacts are confirmed on simulated inhomogeneous cubic phantoms containing a spherical homogenous inclusion using numerically calculated deformation data. The superiority of quasi-real-time imaging of the shear modulus is then demonstrated by comparing it with conventional B-mode imaging and strain imaging from the standpoints of monitoring the effectiveness of minimally invasive thermal therapy as well as differential diagnosis. Because the 2-D and 3-D techniques require special ultrasonic (US) equipment, the 1-D technique using conventional US imaging equipment is used, even though erroneous artifacts will occur. Specifically, the 1-D technique is applied as a diagnostic tool for differentiating malignancies in human in vivo liver and breast tissue, and a monitoring technique for determining the effectiveness of interstitial electromagnetic wave (micro and rf) thermal therapy on human in vivo liver and calf in vitro liver. Even when using the 1-D technique, reconstructed shear moduli were confirmed to be a suitable measure for monitoring thermal treatment as well as differential diagnosis. These results are encouraging in that they will promote use of 2-D and 3-D reconstruction techniques.     

Shear modulus imaging with 2-D transient elastography

In previous work, we have shown that time-resolved 2-D transient elastography is a promising technique for characterizing the elasticity of soft tissues. It involves the measurement of the displacements induced by the propagation of low frequency (LF) pulsed shear waves in biological tissues. In this paper, we present a novel apparatus that contains a LF vibrating device surrounding a linear array of 128 ultrasonic transducers that performs ultrafast ultrasonic imaging (up to 10,000 frames/s) and that is able to follow in real time the propagation of a LF shear wave in the human body. The vibrating device is made of two rods, fixed to electromagnetic vibrators, that produce in the ultrasonic image area a large amplitude shear wave. The geometry has been chosen both to enhance the sensitivity and to create a quasi linear shear wave front in the imaging plane. An inversion algorithm is used to recover the shear modulus map from the spatio-temporal data, and the first experimental results obtained from tissue-equivalent materials are presented.     

Ultrafast compound imaging for 2-D motion vector estimation: application to transient elastography

This paper describes a new technique for two-dimensional (2-D) imaging of the motion vector at a very high frame rate with ultrasound. Its potential is experimentally demonstrated for transient elastography. But, beyond this application, it also could be promising for color flow and reflectivity imaging. To date, only axial displacements induced in human tissues by low-frequency vibrators were measured during transient elastography. The proposed technique allows us to follow both axial and lateral displacements during the shear wave propagation and thus should improve Young's modulus image reconstruction. The process is a combination of several ideas well-known in ultrasonic imaging: ultra-fast imaging, multisynthetic aperture beamforming, 1-D speckle tracking, and compound imaging. Classical beamforming in the transmit mode is replaced here by a single plane wave insonification increasing the frame rate by at least a factor of 128. The beamforming is achieved only in the receive mode on two independent subapertures. Comparison of successive frames by a classical 1-D speckle tracking algorithm allows estimation of displacements along two different directions linked to the subapertures beams. The variance of the estimates is finally improved by tilting the emitting plane wave at each insonification, thus allowing reception of successive decorrelated speckle patterns.     

Imaging feedback of histotripsy treatments using ultrasound shear wave elastography

Histotripsy is a cavitation-based ultrasound therapy that mechanically fractionates soft solid tissues into fluid-like homogenates. This paper investigates the feasibility of imaging the tissue elasticity change during the histotripsy process as a tool to provide feedback for the treatments. The treatments were performed on agar tissue phantoms and ex vivo kidneys using 3-cycle ultrasound pulses delivered by a 750-kHz therapeutic array at peak negative/positive pressure of 17/108 MPa and a repetition rate of 50 Hz. Lesions with different degrees of damage were created with increasing numbers of therapy pulses from 0 to 2000 pulses per treatment location. The elasticity of the lesions was measured with ultrasound shear wave elastography, in which a quasi-planar shear wave was induced by acoustic radiation force generated by the therapeutic array, and tracked with ultrasound imaging at 3000 frames per second. Based on the shear wave velocity calculated from the sequentially captured frames, the Young's modulus was reconstructed. Results showed that the lesions were more easily identified on the shear wave velocity images than on B-mode images. As the number of therapy pulses increased from 0 to 2000 pulses/location, the Young's modulus decreased exponentially from 22.1 ± 2.7 to 2.1 ± 1.1 kPa in the tissue phantoms (R2 = 0.99, N = 9 each), and from 33.0 ± 7.1 to 4.0 ± 2.5 kPa in the ex vivo kidneys (R2 = 0.99, N = 8 each). Correspondingly, the tissues transformed from completely intact to completely fractionated as examined via histology. A good correlation existed between the lesions' Young's modulus and the degree of tissue fractionation as examined with the percentage of remaining structurally intact cell nuclei (R2 = 0.91, N = 8 each). These results indicate that lesions produced by histotripsy can be detected with high sensitivity using shear wave elastography. Because the decrease in the tissue elasticity corresponded well with the morphological and histological change, this study provides a basis for predicting the local treatment outcomes from tissue elasticity change.     

Diffraction field of a low frequency vibrator in soft tissues using transient elastography

For the last 10 years, interest has grown in low frequency shear waves that propagate in the human body. However, the generation of shear waves by acoustic vibrators is a relatively complex problem, and the directivity patterns of shear waves produced by the usual vibrators are more complicated than those obtained for longitudinal ultrasonic transducers. To extract shear modulus parameters from the shear wave propagation in soft tissues, it is important to understand and to optimize the directivity pattern of shear wave vibrators. This paper is devoted to a careful study of the theoretical and the experimental directivity pattern produced by a point source in soft tissues. Both theoretical and experimental measurements show that the directivity pattern of a point source vibrator presents two very strong lobes for an angle around 35 degrees . This paper also points out the impact of the near field in the problem of shear wave generation.     

Quantitative imaging of nonlinear shear modulus by combining static elastography and shear wave elastography

The study of new tissue mechanical properties such as shear nonlinearity could lead to better tissue characterization and clinical diagnosis. This work proposes a method combining static elastography and shear wave elastography to derive the nonlinear shear modulus by applying the acoustoelasticity theory in quasi-incompressible soft solids. Results demonstrate that by applying a moderate static stress at the surface of the investigated medium, and by following the quantitative evolution of its shear modulus, it is possible to accurately and quantitatively recover the local Landau (A) coefficient characterizing the shear nonlinearity of soft tissues.     

Bubble-based acoustic radiation force elasticity imaging

Acoustic radiation force is applied to bubbles generated by laser-induced optical breakdown (LIOB) to study viscoelastic properties of the surrounding medium. In this investigation, femtosecond laser pulses are focused in the volume of gelatin phantoms of different concentrations to form bubbles. A two-element confocal ultrasonic transducer generates acoustic radiation force on individual bubbles while monitoring their displacement within a viscoelastic medium. Tone burst pushes of varying duration have been applied by the outer element at 1.5 MHz. The inner element receives pulse-echo recordings at 7.44 MHz before, during, and after the excitation bursts, and crosscorrelation processing is performed offline to monitor bubble position. Maximum bubble displacements are inversely related to the Young's moduli for different gel phantoms, with a maximum bubble displacement of over 200 microm in a gel phantom with a Young's modulus of 1.7 kPa. Bubble displacements scale with the applied acoustic radiation force and displacements can be normalized to correct for differences in bubble size. Exponential time constants for bubble displacement curves are independent of bubble radius and follow a decreasing trend with the Young's modulus of the surrounding medium. These results demonstrate the potential for bubble-based acoustic radiation force methods to measure tissue viscoelastic properties.     

声速法研究Cu_(58.1)Zr_(35.9)Al_6非晶合金的弹性性能

利用纵波掠入射法测量了超声波在Cu58.1Zr35.9Al6非晶合金中的传播速度。基于声波在各向同性、均匀固体介质中的传播规律,获得其弹性指标参数。结果表明:超声波在Cu58.1Zr35.9Al6非晶合金中传播的纵波速度为4820m/s,横波速度为2107m/s;由此得到的弹性指标以及热力学参数为:K=130GPa,G=33.6GPa,E=93.09GPa,泊松比σ=0.38,θD=283K。     

Uniaxial tensile and shear deformation tests of gold-tin eutectic solder film

This paper describes a novel experimental technique for measuring mechanical properties of gold-tin (Au-Sn) eutectic solder film used for soldering package in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Dual-source DC magnetron sputtering was employed to deposit Au-20 weight % (wt%) Sn film. The tensile test with in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement evaluates the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio at intermediate temperatures. The Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio at room temperature were found to be 51.3 GPa and 0.288, lower than bulk values. The Young's modulus decreased with increasing temperature, whereas the Poisson's ratio did not depend on temperature. The XRD tensile test also showed creep deformation behavior of Au-Sn film. We have developed a shear deformation test technique, which is performed by using Au-Sn film sandwiched by two single crystal silicon (Si) cantilever structures, to characterize the shear properties of the film. The shear moduli obtained from the shear deformation tests ranged from 11.5 to 13.3 GPa, about 38% lower than those from the XRD tensile tests. The measured shear strength from 12 to 17 MPa exhibited a temperature dependency. Information about the tensile and shear characteristics would likely to be of great use in designing Au-Sn soldering packages for MEMS.     

Temperature dependence of the elastic moduli and damping for polycrystalline LiF-22% CaF2 eutectic salt

The Young's and shear moduli and damping were measured for as-cast polycrystalline LiF-22 (mol%) CaF₂ eutectic specimens as a function of temperature using the piezoelectric ultrasonic composite oscillator technique (PUCOT). The shear modulus decreased with increasing temperature from about 40 GPa at 295 K to about 30 GPa at 1000 K, while the Young's modulus decreased from about 115 GPa at 295 K to about 35 GPa at 900 K. These values are compared with those derived from the rule of mixtures using elastic moduli data for LiF and CaF₂ single crystals. It is shown that, while the shear modulus data agree reasonably well with the predicted trend, there is a large discrepancy between the theoretical calculations and the Young's modulus values, where this disagreement increases with increasing temperature. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear but several possibilities are examined and discussed. The effective activation energy for damping was determined to be about 0.21 eV/atom which was found to be in reasonable agreement with the activation energy for migration of anion vacancies in the CaF₂ phase.     

Characterizing the viscoelastic properties of thin hydrogel-based constructs for tissue engineering applications.

We present a novel indentation method for characterizing the viscoelastic properties of alginate and agarose hydrogel based constructs, which are often used as a model system of soft biological tissues. A sensitive long working distance microscope was used for measuring the time-dependent deformation of the thin circular hydrogel membranes under a constant load. The deformation of the constructs was measured laterally. The elastic modulus as a function of time can be determined by a large deformation theory based on Mooney-Rivlin elasticity. A viscoelastic theory, Zener model, was applied to correlate the time-dependent deformation of the constructs with various gel concentrations, and the creep parameters can therefore be quantitatively estimated. The value of Young's modulus was shown to increase in proportion with gel concentration. This finding is consistent with other publications. Our results also showed the great capability of using the technique to measure gels with incorporated corneal stromal cells. This study demonstrates a novel and convenient technique to measure mechanical properties of hydrogel in a non-destructive, online and real-time fashion. Thus this novel technique can become a valuable tool for soft tissue engineering.     

Supersonic shear imaging: a new technique for soft tissue elasticity mapping

Supersonic shear imaging (SSI) is a new ultrasound-based technique for real-time visualization of soft tissue viscoelastic properties. Using ultrasonic focused beams, it is possible to remotely generate mechanical vibration sources radiating low-frequency, shear waves inside tissues. Relying on this concept, SSI proposes to create such a source and make it move at a supersonic speed. In analogy with the "sonic boom" created by a supersonic aircraft, the resulting shear waves will interfere constructively along a Mach cone, creating two intense plane shear waves. These waves propagate through the medium and are progressively distorted by tissue heterogeneities. An ultrafast scanner prototype is able to both generate this supersonic source and image (5000 frames/s) the propagation of the resulting shear waves. Using inversion algorithms, the shear elasticity of medium can be mapped quantitatively from this propagation movie. The SSI enables tissue elasticity mapping in less than 20 ms, even in strongly viscous medium like breast. Modalities such as shear compounding are implementable by tilting shear waves in different directions and improving the elasticity estimation. Results validating SSI in heterogeneous phantoms are presented. The first in vivo investigations made on healthy volunteers emphasize the potential clinical applicability of SSI for breast cancer detection.     

Ultrasonic examination of reaction bonded silicon nitride

An ultrasonic examination has been made of a series of partially nitrided reaction-bonded silicon nitride (RBSN) ceramics whose weight gains varied from 22% to nearly 64% representing full nitridation. A pulse echo overlap technique was used which enabled both the longitudinal and shear velocities of propagation to be measured at 15 MHz; from these measurements values of Young's modulus (E) and the bulk modulus (K) at room temperature were derived. For fully nitrided RBSN the values obtained wereE=160 GN m^–2,K=90 GN m^–2 in good agreement with published values obtained by ultrasonic methods. Both Young's modulus and the bulk modulus were found to be markedly sensitive to the changes in fractional porosity due to changes in weight gain (and green density) each decreasing by over 50% as the fractional porosity increased from 0.16 for a fully nitrided ceramic to 0.26 for 60% weight gain material.     

Fine elasticity imaging utilizing the iterative RF-echo phase matching method

To non-invasively quantify elasticity of soft tissue, we previously developed the iterative two-dimensional (2-D) rf-echo phase matching method for accurately measuring a 2-D displacement vector field generated in vivo in soft tissue during acquisition of two successive rf-echo data frames. We also developed a stable method for uniquely reconstructing a shear modulus distribution using strains derived from the measurement data. However, as in our measurement method a displacement is determined by using the phase characteristics of the finite local echo data as the index to iteratively search for the corresponding local data, change of the local phase characteristics due to tissue deformation deteriorates the accuracy of the determination. Thus, we improve the previous method such that, in principle, the displacement can be determined using an infinitesimal phase characteristics. That is, we incorporate an effective mechanism into the previous iterative phase matching scheme: the local size is made suitably smaller during the iterative phase matching. The demonstrated ability of measurement and reconstruction in simulation, and experiments on in vitro in pork rib and in vivo in breast tissue, shows this refinement allows not only better spatial resolution of the shear modulus image but also improved accuracy, and indicates that the improved method has a high potential to be applied for various soft tissues.     

Application of an ultrasonic technique to creep cavitation in silicon nitride

A non-destructive method based on measurements of ultrasonic wave velocities and Young's modulus is proposed for quantification of creep cavitation in silicon nitride. Tensile creep tests of silicon nitride were conducted at 1400°C in air and the tests were periodically interrupted to measure the longitudinal and transverse ultrasonic wave velocities and Young's modulus. The velocities and Young's modulus decreased linearly with tensile creep strain. The volume fraction of cavities was estimated from the values of the ultrasonic wave velocities and Young's modulus, and compared with the cavity volume predicted from tensile creep strain. The dependence of Young's modulus on volume fraction of cavities is discussed.     

Clinical determination of tissue optical properties by endoscopic spatially resolved reflectometry

A noninvasive method to measure the optical properties of a diffusing and absorbing medium is described. Based on the spatially resolved measurement of diffuse reflectance at the sample surface, this method is particularly suitable for investigating the in vivo optical properties of biological tissues endoscopically in a clinical context. The sensitivity of the measurement is discussed, and two optical probes for two different clinical applications are presented. Preliminary measurements are performed on a nonbiological medium, which illustrate the possibilities of the proposed method. Finally, we report on in vivo measurements of the optical properties of the human esophageal wall at 630 nm.     

The relations between the shear modulus, the bulk modulus and Young's modulus for porous isotropic ceramic materials

A relation between the shear modulus and Young's modulus of isotropic porous ceramics has been derived based on the Mori–Tanaka mean-field approach. The applicability of the relation has been evaluated using the experimental values available in the literature for the shear modulus, the bulk modulus and Young's modulus of porous ceramics prepared using various processing techniques and powder sizes. It is also shown that the ratio of the shear to Young's modulus of porous ceramics can be approximated by a constant value of 0.391.     

Assessment of viscous and elastic properties of sub-wavelength layered soft tissues using shear wave spectroscopy: theoretical framework and in vitro experimental validation

In elastography, quantitative imaging of soft tissue elastic properties is provided by local shear wave speed estimation. Shear wave imaging in a homogeneous medium thicker than the shear wavelength is eased by a simple relationship between shear wave speed and local shear modulus. In thin layered organs, the shear wave is guided and thus undergoes dispersive effects. This case is encountered in medical applications such as elastography of skin layers, corneas, or arterial walls. In this work, we proposed and validated shear wave spectroscopy as a method for elastic modulus quantification in such layered tissues. Shear wave dispersion curves in thin layers were obtained by finite-difference simulations and numerical solving of the boundary conditions. In addition, an analytical approximation of the dispersion equation was derived from the leaky Lamb wave theory. In vitro dispersion curves obtained from phantoms were consistent with numerical studies (deviation <1.4%). The least-mean-squares fitting of the dispersion curves enables a quantitative and accurate (error < 5% of the transverse speed) assessment of the elasticity. Dispersion curves were also found to be poorly influenced by shear viscosity. This phenomenon allows independent recovery of the shear modulus and the viscosity, using, respectively, the dispersion curve and the attenuation estimation along the propagation axis.     

Cobalt-based bulk glassy alloy with ultrahigh strength and soft magnetic properties

Bulk metallic glasses--formed by supercooling the liquid state of certain metallic alloys--have potentially superior mechanical properties to crystalline materials. Here, we report a Co(43)Fe(20)Ta(5.5)B(31.5) glassy alloy exhibiting ultrahigh fracture strength of 5,185 MPa, high Young's modulus of 268 GPa, high specific strength of 6.0 x 10(5) Nm kg(-1) and high specific Young's modulus of 31 x 10(6) Nm kg(-1). The strength, specific strength and specific Young's modulus are higher than previous values reported for any bulk crystalline or glassy alloys. Excellent formability is manifested by large tensile elongation of 1,400% and large reduction ratio in thickness above 90% in the supercooled liquid region. The ultrahigh-strength alloy also exhibited soft magnetic properties with extremely high permeability of 550,000. This alloy is promising as a new ultrahigh-strength material with good deformability and soft magnetic properties.     

Elastic modulus and vibration damping in Iron/Copper- and steel-based metal matrix composites

Measurements were made of the dynamic flexural modulus, dynamic Young's modulus, damping, strain amplitude, and the strain amplitude dependence of damping in iron/copper- and steel-based metal matrix composites. Comparisons were made concerning the steel matrix specimens before and after heat treatment. The flexural modulus tests were performed using the Grindosonic technique, while the Young's modulus, damping, strain amplitude, and the strain amplitude dependence of damping were determined using the piezoelectric ultrasonic composite oscillator technique (PUCOT). Metallographic studies utilizing chemical etching, optical and electron microscopy, and microhardness testing were performed to assess the distribution of the fibres in the composites. The variation of dynamic Young's modulus with respect to percentage copper in the composites followed the rule of mixtures.