Methods, systems, and computer readable media for evaluating mechanical anisotropy for breast cancer screening and monitoring response to therapy

A system for evaluating mechanical anisotropy of a material sample to determine a characteristic of the sample, the system comprising:

• an ultrasound transducer;
• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing instructions executable by the one or more processors for:
• controlling the ultrasound transducer to interrogate a material sample a plurality of times, each interrogation comprising:
• controlling the ultrasound transducer to apply a force having a direction, having a coronal plane normal to the direction of the force, and having an oval or other profile with long and short axes within the coronal plane, the long axis being oriented at a specified angle from a reference direction within the coronal plane;
• and
• measuring displacement of the material sample resulting from application of the force, wherein the interrogations are taken at different angles of orientation within the coronal plane and different portions of the material sample are interrogated;
• the memory further storing instructions executable by the one or more processors for:
• for each measurement, calculating one or more parameters for the respective angle of orientation;
• and
• determining and using a degree of anisotropy of the one or more parameters to evaluate a characteristic of the material sample.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by a processor of a computer control the computer to perform steps comprising:

• controlling an ultrasound transducer to interrogate a material sample a plurality of times, each interrogation comprising:
• applying a force having a direction, having a coronal plane normal to the direction of the force, and having an oval or other profile with long and short axes within the coronal plane, the long axis being oriented at a specified angle from a reference direction within the coronal plane;
• and
• measuring displacement of the material sample resulting from application of the force, wherein the interrogations are taken at different angles of orientation within the coronal plane and different portions of the material sample are interrogated;
• for each measurement, calculating one or more parameters for the respective angle of orientation;
• and
• determining and using a degree of anisotropy of the one or more parameters to evaluate a characteristic of the material sample.