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US 2023/0126481 A1Published application
System for characterizing tissue and associated method
AssigneeEchosens
InventorsLaurent SANDRIN, Hugo LOREE
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for characterizing tissue includes a probe that delivers a continuous and periodic mechanical vibration to a tissue of a subject; an ultrasound emitter that emits a sequence of ultrasound shots and an ultrasound receiver that receives corresponding echo signals to track how the tissue is moved by the periodic mechanical vibration delivered to the tissue; and a control module programmed to provide homogeneity information to an operator of the system, the homogeneity information being determined from at least some of the echo signals and being representative of the ability of the tissue to transmit elastic waves and of the homogeneity of the tissue with respect to the propagation of elastic waves.
Claims25
-22. (canceled)
A system for characterizing tissue, comprising:
- a probe, to be held against the body of a subject and that comprises a vibrator to deliver mechanical vibrations to a tissue of the subject;
- an ultrasound emitter that is configured to emit a sequence of ultrasound shots and an ultrasound receiver configured to receive corresponding echo signals;
- and
- a control module programmed to make the system execute the following steps:
- a) emitting a sequence of ultrasound shots by means of the ultrasound emitter while a periodic mechanical vibration comprising of a same vibration pattern repeated several times successively over time is delivered to the tissue of the subject;
- b) acquiring corresponding echo signals received by the ultrasound receiver to track how the tissue is moved by the periodic mechanical vibration delivered to the tissue;
- c) prior to carrying out a stiffness measurement by said system, providing homogeneity information to an operator of the system, the homogeneity information being determined from at least some of the echo signals acquired in step b) and by carrying out a comparison between said at least some echo signals acquired in step b), the homogeneity information being representative of the ability of the tissue to transmit elastic waves to carry out the stiffness measurement, and said homogeneity information being determined independently of the stiffness measurement of said tissue such that the at least some of the echo signals that are processed by the control module to provide homogeneity information of said tissue are different from echo signals that are processed for making the stiffness measurement of said tissue, and
- d) carrying out the stiffness measurement.
5 more elements
The system of claim 1:
- further comprising a manual adjustment control for adjusting an amplitude of the periodic mechanical vibration, the control module being further programmed to provide to the operator an information representative of an amplitude of a periodic deformation of the tissue, caused by the periodic mechanical vibration delivered to the tissue, the amplitude of periodic deformation of the tissue being determined from at least some of the echo signals acquired in step b), or
- wherein the control module is programmed to adjust automatically the amplitude of the periodic mechanical vibration delivered to the subject based on the amplitude of the periodic deformation of the tissue.
A method comprising characterizing a tissue, carried on by means of a system comprising:
- a probe, to be held against the skin of a subject and that comprises a vibrator to deliver mechanical vibrations to a tissue of a subject;
- an ultrasound emitter that is configured to emit a sequence of ultrasound shots and an ultrasound receiver that is configured to receive corresponding echo signals;
- and
- a control module programmed to make the system execute the following steps:
- a) emitting a sequence of ultrasound shots by means of the ultrasound emitter while a periodic mechanical vibration comprising of a same vibration pattern repeated several times successively over time is delivered to the tissue of the subject
- b) acquiring corresponding echo signals received by the ultrasound receiver to track how the tissue is moved by the periodic mechanical vibration delivered to the tissue;
- c) prior to carrying out a stiffness measurement by said system, providing homogeneity information to an operator of the system, the homogeneity information being determined from at least some of the echo signals acquired in step b) and by carrying out a comparison between said at least some echo signals acquired in step b), the homogeneity information being representative of the ability of the tissue to transmit elastic waves to carry out the stiffness measurement, and said homogeneity information being determined independently of a stiffness measurement of said tissue such that the at least some of the echo signals that are processed by the control module to provide homogeneity information of said tissue are different from echo signals that are processed for making the stiffness measurement of said tissue, and
- d) carrying out the stiffness measurement.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.