Fast simulations of shear waves generated by an acoustic radiation force: Comparisons with measurements in shear wave phantoms

Abstract

We recently developed a fast approach for simulating shear waves generated by an acoustic radiation force. The input for these simulations is generated in FOCUS, the “Fast object-oriented C + + simulator” (www.egr.msu.edu/~fultras-web), which rapidly models the three-dimensional (3D) pressure, intensity, and acoustic radiation force on a desktop computer. The shear waves generated by the acoustic radiation force are then quickly simulated with Green's functions for viscoelastic media in a two-dimensional (2D) plane on a high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU). For these simulations, an L7-4 linear array is electronically focused at a depth of 25 mm to generate an acoustic radiation force “push” for 200 microseconds. The simulation results are compared to shear wave data measured in three viscoelastic shear wave phantoms with low, medium, and high values of the shear viscosity using a Verasonics Vantage ultrasound system. The measured and simulated shear wave data are compared for several different combinations of the simulation parameters, where these comparisons are enabled by the rapid acoustic radiation force and shear wave simulations. The results show that the shear waves simulated in 2D planes achieve good agreement with the measured shear wave data. [Work supported in part by NIH Grants EB023051 and DK092255.]We recently developed a fast approach for simulating shear waves generated by an acoustic radiation force. The input for these simulations is generated in FOCUS, the “Fast object-oriented C + + simulator” (www.egr.msu.edu/~fultras-web), which rapidly models the three-dimensional (3D) pressure, intensity, and acoustic radiation force on a desktop computer. The shear waves generated by the acoustic radiation force are then quickly simulated with Green's functions for viscoelastic media in a two-dimensional (2D) plane on a high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU). For these simulations, an L7-4 linear array is electronically focused at a depth of 25 mm to generate an acoustic radiation force “push” for 200 microseconds. The simulation results are compared to shear wave data measured in three viscoelastic shear wave phantoms with low, medium, and high values of the shear viscosity using a Verasonics Vantage ultrasound system. The measured and simulated shear wave data are compared for several different...