Tissue deformation induced by radiation force from Gaussian transducers

Abstract

Imaging techniques based upon the tissue mechanical response to an acoustic radiation force are being actively researched. In this paper a model for predicting steady-state tissue displacement induced by a radiation force arising from the absorption of Gaussian ultrasound beams is presented. A simple analytic expression is derived that agrees closely with the numerical quadrature of the displacement convolution integrals. The analytic result reveals the dependence of the steady-state axial displacement upon the operational parameters, e.g., an inverse proportional relationship to the tissue shear modulus. The derivation requires that the transducer radius be small compared to the focal length, but accurate results were obtained for transducer radii comparable to the focal length. Favorable comparisons with displacement predictions for non-Gaussian transducers indicate that the theory is also useful for a broader range of transducer intensity profiles.