Ex vivo evaluation of the sensitivity of modified average speed of sound estimation method

Abstract

The speed of sound (SoS), which is the propagation speed of longitudinal waves, is expected to be effective for the early detection and monitoring of diseases. Several methods that use handheld probes have been proposed to estimate the SoS. In this study, a modified average SoS estimation method, referred to as the improved focusing method, is proposed to increase the accuracy of average SoS estimation. In the proposed method, a plane wave was transmitted, and the center-element position-dependent variations in the SoS estimation were reduced. Ex vivo experiments were conducted using chicken liver to evaluate the applicability and sensitivity of the proposed method to actual tissues. The livers were subjected to continuous temperature changes to induce changes in the SoS. The results suggest that the improved focusing method measures the average SoS accurately as well as small SoS changes of approximately 1.5 m·s−1·°C−1.