Back to results
US 2017/0319171 A1Published application
Devices, Methods, and Systems for Measuring Elastic Properties of Biological Tissues Using Acoustic Force
AssigneeThe Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
InventorsJonathan VAPPOU, Elisa E. KONOFAGOU
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device, method, and system for using an acoustic radiation force resulting from focused ultrasound energy in order to generate an internal force remotely and to measure quantitatively tissue elasticity in vivo and non-invasively.
Claims18
A method for measuring elasticity within a tissue volume, comprising:
- emitting ultrasound radiation force from a contact region of a surface of a tissue volume energy to vibrate focal region remote from the surface;
- generating image data representing at least a portion of the focal region and a region surrounding the focal region;
- from image data resulting from the imaging, extracting displacement magnitude data characterizing the vibration of the focal region;
- determining a net force causing the focal region vibration;
- calculating an elastic property of the tissue volume within the immediate vicinity of the focal region from the net force and the displacement data.
2 more elements
8-76. (canceled)
A method for quantitative measurement of an elasticity parameter of a target location within a subject, comprising:
- applying remotely an amplitude-modulated ultrasound energy at a focal region of the target location to modulate the focal region
- at a predetermined frequency
- and exert a predetermined acoustic force on a region of the target location surrounding the focal region;
- simultaneously acquiring a sequence of images of the region surrounding the focal region, the images representing the axial movement of the region due to the exertion of the acoustic force on the region;
- determining an axial displacement of the region from the sequence of images using cross-correlation;
- and
- calculating an elasticity parameter based on a relationship between the elasticity parameter, the axial displacement, and the predetermined acoustic force,
- wherein the elasticity parameter is an elastic modulus.
5 more elements
A method for detecting tumors in a sample tissue of a living subject, comprising:
- causing an internal deformation of the sample tissue by applying remotely an amplitude-modulated oscillating acoustic force at a target location within the tissue;
- simultaneously measuring the axial and the shear strains in the tissue caused by the applied acoustic force;
- calculating the elasticity modulus of the tissue based on the measured axial and shear strains and the known acoustic force;
- responsively to the elasticity, repeating said causing at a different frequency.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.