# US 2022/0034845 A1 · Standardizing diffusion of a fluid into tissue

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- Number: US 2022/0034845 A1
- Document ID: US20220034845A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/505,095
- Filed: 2021-10-19
- Published: 2022-02-03
- Earliest claimed: 2015-02-09
- Assignees: Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.
- Applicants: Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.
- Inventors: Daniel Bauer; David Chafin; Michael Otter; Abbey Theiss
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20220034845A1

## CPC

- G01N 29/024: by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves
- G01N 1/30: Staining; Impregnating {; Fixation; Dehydration; Multistep processes for preparing samples of tissue, cell or nucleic acid material and the like for analysis}
- G01N 29/07: by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves
- G01N 2291/024: Mixtures
- G01N 2291/02475: Tissue characterisation
- G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q)

## Abstract

Disclosed are a system and method for evaluating a tissue sample that has been removed from a subject. Movement of fluid through the tissue sample is monitored by measuring time of flight of acoustic waves passed through the tissue sample. A system for performing the method can include a transmitter that outputs the energy and a receiver configured to detect the transmitted energy. Using the disclosed method and system, an optimized protocol for ensuring adequate distribution of the fluid throughout a variety of tissue types and/or sample sizes can be developed and utilized.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system comprising:
an acoustic monitoring device that detects acoustic waves that have traveled through a tissue sample; and
a computing device communicatively coupled to the acoustic monitoring device, the computing device is configured to evaluate a speed of the acoustic waves based on a time of flight and including instructions, when executed, for causing the processing system to perform operations comprising:
monitoring a diffusion of a fluid through a tissue sample using the acoustic monitoring device; and
recording a time when the fluid has diffused through at least a portion of the tissue sample.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise plotting a decay curve based on the monitoring of the diffusion of the fluid through the tissue sample.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The system of claim 2, wherein the decay curve is used to estimate a decay constant for the tissue sample.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise storing the decay constant in a record associated with a tissue type of the tissue sample.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The system of claim 4, wherein subsequent tissue samples of the same tissue type are processed based on the decay constant.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The system claim 1, wherein an upper limit of the time is set to 6 hours.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the fluid is a tissue fixative.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The system of claim 7, wherein the tissue fixative comprises an aldehyde-based tissue fixative.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The system of claim 8, wherein the aldehyde-based tissue fixative comprises formaldehyde.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the fluid is at a temperature ranging from between about 0° C. to 15° C.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the fluid is at a temperature ranging from between about 0° C. to 10° C.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the fluid is at a temperature ranging from between about 5° C. to 15° C.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the acoustic monitoring device detects ultrasonic waves that have traveled through the tissue sample.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The system of claim 13, wherein the ultrasonic waves have an intensity of less than 1 W/cm2.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the tissue sample is less than 7 mm thick.

### Claim 16

A non-transitory computer-readable medium to store computer-readable code that is executed by a processor to perform operations comprising:
contacting a tissue sample with a fluid for a time period; and comparing the time period with a threshold time period to determine an optimal time to remove the tissue sample from the fluid.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the fluid comprises a fixative.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise performing a fixation process on the tissue sample after the fixative has displaced a predetermined target percentage volume of interstitial fluid from the tissue sample.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein performing the fixation process includes heating the tissue sample to promote cross-linking of the tissue sample.

### Claim 20 (depends on 16)

The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the fluid is at a temperature ranging from between about 0° C. to 15° C.