Ultrasonic sensing by induced tissue motion
AssigneeRiverside Research Institute
InventorsFrederic L. Lizzi, Sheikh Kaisar Alam
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Radiation pulses from a high energy therapeutic ultrasound system are used to stimulate tissue motion by radiation pressure. The tissue motion is monitored using a diagnostic ultrasound system.
Claims23
A method for treating and evaluating tissue characteristics, comprising:
- providing an ultrasonic therapeutic transducer for insonifying a region of tissue;
- operating said ultrasonic therapeutic transducer to treat a region of tissue
- providing an ultrasonic diagnostic transducer for transmitting and receiving signals from a region of tissue;
- operating said ultrasonic therapeutic transducer to insonify a selected region of tissue and cause induced tissue displacement;
- and
- operating said ultrasonic diagnostic transducer to observe said induced tissue displacement and thereby to evaluate mechanical characteristics of said tissue.
A method of locating the focal volume of an ultrasonic therapeutic transducer in tissue, comprising:
- detecting ultrasonic echoes from said tissue to determine initial structure thereof;
- stimulating said tissue using ultrasonic radiation from said therapeutic transducer during a first selected time interval to induce tissue displacement;
- and
- detecting diagnostic ultrasonic echoes from said tissue during a second time interval immediately following said first time interval thereby to detect a region of said tissue corresponding to the focal volume of said therapeutic transducer.
A method for treating tissue using high intensity ultrasound radiation comprising:
- stimulating said tissue with high intensity ultrasonic radiation from an ultrasonic therapeutic transducer during a first selected time period;
- detecting diagnostic ultrasonic echoes from said tissue using an ultrasonic diagnostic transducer during a second time interval immediately following said first time interval thereby to determine mechanical properties of said tissue;
- and
- exposing said tissue to therapeutic high intensity ultrasonic pulses in a pulse sequence selected according to said mechanical properties.
A method for measuring mechanical properties of tissue comprising:
- stimulating a region of tissue with first and second high intensity ultrasonic radiation beams having first and second radiation axes;
- and
- detecting diagnostic ultrasonic echoes from said region of tissues during a time interval immediately following said stimulating thereby to determine mechanical properties of said tissue.
A method of forming an image representing characteristics of a region of tissue, comprising:
- stimulating said tissue with high intensity ultrasonic radiation from an ultrasonic therapeutic transducer during a first selected time interval to induce tissue displacement;
- detecting ultrasonic echoes from said tissue using a diagnostic ultrasonic transducer during a second time selected time interval immediately following said first time interval thereby to measure mechanical characteristics of said tissue;
- adjusting the tissue location of said diagnostic ultrasonic transducer and repeating said detecting to measure mechanical properties of said tissue over a plurality of tissue locations;
- and
- combining said measurements to form an image of said tissue.
A method for applying stress to tissue comprising insonifying said tissue with first and second therapeutic ultrasound beams having a common focal point in said tissue and having different beam directions toward said common focal point.
A method for applying stress to tissue comprising insonifying said tissue with first and second therapeutic ultrasound beams having a focal points spaced from each other in said tissue and having different beam directions toward said focal points.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.