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.
Claims21
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;
- estimating, by the processor, a fat fraction of the tissue as a function of the attenuation of the shear wave;
- 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 function of a center frequency, bandwidth, or center frequency and bandwidth 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, other than velocity, of the shear wave propagation;
- and
- estimating the fat fraction for the tissue as a function of the property.
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 an attenuation, center frequency, bandwidth, or combinations thereof of the tissue displacements, and to determine the fat fraction estimation from the attenuation, center frequency, bandwidth, or combinations thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.