Fat fraction estimation using ultrasound with shear wave propagation
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorsLiexiang Fan, John Benson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Fat fraction is estimated from shear wave propagation. Acoustic radiation force is used to generate a shear wave in tissue of interest. The attenuation, center frequency, bandwidth or other non-velocity characteristic of the shear wave is calculated and used to estimate the fat fraction.
Claims17
A method for fat fraction estimation from shear wave propagation, the method comprising:
- transmitting an acoustic radiation force excitation into a patient;
- measuring, with ultrasound, displacements at locations of tissue within a patient in response to a shear wave resulting from the acoustic radiation force excitation;
- calculating, by a processor, attenuation of the shear wave from the displacements, wherein calculating the attenuation of the shear wave comprises determining a maximum of the displacements over time for each of the locations and calculating a slope of the maximums of the displacements over the locations;
- calculating a center frequency, bandwidth, or center frequency and bandwidth of the displacements as a function of time;
- estimating, by the processor, fat fraction of the tissue as a mapping by a relationship stored in a look-up table, curve, statistic, or machine-learnt function, the mapping relating the attenuation of the shear wave and the center frequency, the bandwidth, or the center frequency and the bandwidth of the displacements as a function of time to the fat fraction by input of the attenuation of the shear wave and the center frequency, the bandwidth, or the center frequency and the bandwidth of the displacements to the look-up table, curve, statistic, or machine-learnt function, the look-up table, curve, statistic, or machine-learnt function outputting the fat fraction in response to the input;
- and
- displaying an indication of the fat fraction.
A method for fat fraction estimation from shear wave propagation, the method comprising:
- transmitting an acoustic radiation force excitation into a patient;
- measuring, with ultrasound, displacements at locations of tissue within a patient in response to a shear wave resulting from the acoustic radiation force excitation;
- calculating, by a processor, a center frequency, bandwidth, or center frequency and bandwidth of the displacements as a function of time;
- estimating, by the processor, fat fraction of the tissue as a mapping of the center frequency, bandwidth, or center frequency and bandwidth of the displacements of the shear wave to the fat fraction using a stored look-up table, statistic, or machine-learnt function of a relationship of the fat fraction to the center frequency, bandwidth, or center frequency and bandwidth of the displacements of the shear wave;
- and
- displaying an indication of the fat fraction.
In a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for fat fraction estimation from shear wave propagation, the storage medium comprising instructions for:
- generating acoustic radiation force focused at a location in tissue;
- measuring shear wave propagation resulting from the acoustic radiation force;
- calculating a property as a center frequency of displacements or a bandwidth of displacements of the shear wave propagation;
- and
- estimating the fat fraction for the tissue from input of the property of the displacements to a look-up table storing a relationship of the property with the fat fraction.
A system for fat fraction estimation from shear wave propagation, the system comprising:
- a transducer configured to transmit an acoustic impulse excitation into a patient and configured to scan with ultrasound a region of the patient;
- a receive beamformer configured to generate data representing the region at different times after the acoustic impulse excitation, the data generated from the scan with ultrasound;
- a processor configured to estimate tissue displacement caused by a shear wave induced by the acoustic impulse excitation, to calculate a center frequency, a bandwidth, or combinations thereof of the tissue displacements, and to determine the fat fraction estimation from a look-up table-based mapping of the center frequency, bandwidth, or combinations thereof to the fat fraction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.