Acoustic Properties Of Soft Tissues Research Articles

Holography-based measurement of sound speed and attenuation coefficient values for small samples of tissue phantoms

For therapeutic ultrasound applications, design and planning of treatments often involve simulations to predict the in situ acoustic field, and these simulations rely on estimates of the acoustic properties of soft tissues. As defined in simulation models, these properties describe how a plane wave propagates in a homogeneous medium. However, because soft tissues inherently contain inhomogeneities, measurements are most appropriately performed on small, relatively homogeneous samples. In addition, mostly small samples of human tissue, either autopsy or post-surgical, are typically available for characterization. As published in a recent paper [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2021, 149(1): 386–404], we have proposed a holography-based technique to extract plane-wave measurements from ultrasound beams passing through small (cm-sized) material samples. Here, we seek to adapt this technique for measuring small samples of deformable materials using an apparatus that holds such samples with two plane, parallel surfaces that can be interrogated by an incident ultrasound beam having a diameter smaller than that of the sample. Initial testing over a range of frequencies from 0.5 to 10MHz is performed utilizing well characterized materials, such as hydrogels and silicone rubber. [Work supported by NIH grant R01EB025187.]

Effect of Temperature and Frequency on the Acoustic Properties of Konjac Glucomannan-Agar Gels as Tissue Mimicking Materials

In this study, we determine the effect of temperature and frequency on the acoustic properties of konjac glucomannan (KGM)-agar gels to confirm their compatibilities as tissue mimicking materials (TMMs). The acoustic properties of four samples; A (KGM-0.10 g agar), B (KGM-0.20 g agar), C (KGM-0.30 g agar) and D (KGM-0.40 g agar) were measured using pulse echo immersion technique. Findings indicated that the longitudinal velocities of all samples were increased while their attenuation coefficients were decreased as the temperature increased from 27.0 to 37.0°C. It also showed that the phase velocities of all samples were independent to frequency but their attenuation coefficients were increased as the frequency increased from 4.0 to 6.0 MHz. KGM-agar gels are compatible as soft TMMs since their acoustic properties are comparable with the acoustic properties of soft tissue.

Acoustic Properties of Small Animal Soft Tissue in the Frequency Range 12–32 MHz

Quality assurance phantoms are made of tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs) the acoustic properties of which mimic those of soft tissue. However, the acoustic properties of many soft tissue types have not been measured at ultrasonic frequencies >9 MHz. With the increasing use of high-frequency ultrasound for both clinical and pre-clinical applications, it is of increasing interest to ensure that TMMs accurately reflect the acoustic properties of soft tissue at these higher frequencies. In this study, the acoustic properties of ex vivo brain, liver and kidney samples from 50 mice were assessed in the frequency range 12–32 MHz. Measurements were performed within 6 min of euthanasia in a phosphate-buffered saline solution maintained at 37.2 ± 0.2 °C. The measured mean values for the speed of sound for all organs were found to be higher than the International Electrotechnical Commission guideline recommended value for TMMs. The attenuation coefficients measured for brain, liver and kidney samples were compared with the results of previous studies at lower frequencies. Only the measured kidney attenuation coefficient was found to be in good agreement with the International Electrotechnical Commission guideline. The information provided in this study can be used as a baseline on which to manufacture a TMM suitable for high-frequency applications.

Time domain reconstruction of sound speed and attenuation in ultrasound computed tomography using full wave inversion.

Ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique that provides information about the acoustic properties of soft tissues in the body, such as the speed of sound (SS) and acoustic attenuation (AA). Knowledge of these properties can improve the discrimination between benign and malignant masses, especially in breast cancer studies. Full wave inversion (FWI) methods for image reconstruction in USCT provide the best image quality compared to more approximate methods. Using FWI, the SS is usually recovered in the time domain, and the AA is usually recovered in the frequency domain. Nevertheless, as both properties can be obtained from the same data, it is desirable to have a common framework to reconstruct both distributions. In this work, an algorithm is proposed to reconstruct both the SS and AA distributions using a time domain FWI methodology based on the fractional Laplacian wave equation, an adjoint field formulation, and a gradient-descent method. The optimization code employs a Compute Unified Device Architecture version of the software k-Wave, which provides high computational efficiency. The performance of the method was evaluated using simulated noisy data from numerical breast phantoms. Errors were less than 0.5% in the recovered SS and 10% in the AA.

Pipe Phantoms With Applications in Molecular Imaging and System Characterization.

Pipe (vessel) phantoms mimicking human tissue and blood flow are widely used for cardiovascular related research in medical ultrasound. Pipe phantom studies require the development of materials and liquids that match the acoustic properties of soft tissue, blood vessel wall, and blood. Over recent years, pipe phantoms have been developed to mimic the molecular properties of the simulated blood vessels. In this paper, the design, construction, and functionalization of pipe phantoms are introduced and validated for applications in molecular imaging and ultrasound imaging system characterization. There are three major types of pipe phantoms introduced: 1) a gelatin-based pipe phantom; 2) a polydimethylsiloxane-based pipe phantom; and 3) the "Edinburgh pipe phantom." These phantoms may be used in the validation and assessment of the dynamics of microbubble-based contrast agents and, in the case of a small diameter tube phantom, for assessing imaging system spatial resolution/contrast performance. The materials and procedures required to address each of the phantoms are described.

WFUMB Guidelines and Recommendations for Clinical Use of Ultrasound Elastography: Part 1: Basic Principles and Terminology

Conventional diagnostic ultrasound images of the anatomy (as opposed to blood flow) reveal differences in the acoustic properties of soft tissues (mainly echogenicity but also, to some extent, attenuation), whereas ultrasound-based elasticity images are able to reveal the differences in the elastic properties of soft tissues (e.g., elasticity and viscosity). The benefit of elasticity imaging lies in the fact that many soft tissues can share similar ultrasonic echogenicities but may have different mechanical properties that can be used to clearly visualize normal anatomy and delineate pathologic lesions. Typically, all elasticity measurement and imaging methods introduce a mechanical excitation and monitor the resulting tissue response. Some of the most widely available commercial elasticity imaging methods are ‘quasi-static’ and use external tissue compression to generate images of the resulting tissue strain (or deformation). In addition, many manufacturers now provide shear wave imaging and measurement methods, which deliver stiffness images based upon the shear wave propagation speed. The goal of this review is to describe the fundamental physics and the associated terminology underlying these technologies. We have included a questions and answers section, an extensive appendix, and a glossary of terms in this manuscript. We have also endeavored to ensure that the terminology and descriptions, although not identical, are broadly compatible across the WFUMB and EFSUMB sets of guidelines on elastography (Bamber et al. 2013; Cosgrove et al. 2013).

Foreword to the WFUMB Guidelines and Recommendations on the Clinical Use of Ultrasound Elastography

The recent trend of a significant increase in publications on elastography evoked the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB) to feel the urgent need to create guidelines on the clinical use of elastography. At the WFUMB congress in Vienna inAugust2011,the WFUMBleadership decidedtotakeinitiativeto create the guidelines; the first consensus meeting was held in March 2013 in Washington, DC, and this was followed by sponsoring an elastography consensus session at the WFUMB Congress in San Paolo in May 2013. This is the first time that elastography experts from around the world have come together to create unified guidelines on the clinical use of this technique. Conventional ultrasound echography portrays differences in the acoustic properties of soft tissues (mainly echogenicity but also, to some extent, attenuation), whereas elasticity imaging (elastography)portraysdifferencesintheirelasticproperties(e.g.,elasticity and viscosity). The effective medical use of the two modalities in combination therefore requires sophisticated judgment based on knowledge of how tissue differences and pathologies influence these two different types of mechanical characteristics. Furthermore, the rapid dissemination of ultrasound elastography machines into the market place, the range of apparently different elasticity imaging methodsavailableandthedauntingresearchliteratureonthephysics and medical applications of elastography have created a potentially confusing situation for those who may be considering using elastography. The definite need was therefore strongly felt by the WFUMB to create this set of guidelines and recommendations on the clinical use of ultrasound elastography, which is divided into two clinical papers, each dealing with an existing important application of elastography (of the liver and breast), and to precede these with a basic paper, the goal of which is to introduce the fundamental physics and associated terminology underlying elastography technologies. A similar set of guidelines has been published recently by the Euro

Acoustic radiation force-based elasticity imaging methods.

Conventional diagnostic ultrasound images portray differences in the acoustic properties of soft tissues, whereas ultrasound-based elasticity images portray differences in the elastic properties of soft tissues (i.e. stiffness, viscosity). The benefit of elasticity imaging lies in the fact that many soft tissues can share similar ultrasonic echogenicities, but may have different mechanical properties that can be used to clearly visualize normal anatomy and delineate pathological lesions. Acoustic radiation force-based elasticity imaging methods use acoustic radiation force to transiently deform soft tissues, and the dynamic displacement response of those tissues is measured ultrasonically and is used to estimate the tissue's mechanical properties. Both qualitative images and quantitative elasticity metrics can be reconstructed from these measured data, providing complimentary information to both diagnose and longitudinally monitor disease progression. Recently, acoustic radiation force-based elasticity imaging techniques have moved from the laboratory to the clinical setting, where clinicians are beginning to characterize tissue stiffness as a diagnostic metric, and commercial implementations of radiation force-based ultrasonic elasticity imaging are beginning to appear on the commercial market. This article provides an overview of acoustic radiation force-based elasticity imaging, including a review of the relevant soft tissue material properties, a review of radiation force-based methods that have been proposed for elasticity imaging, and a discussion of current research and commercial realizations of radiation force based-elasticity imaging technologies.

A feasibility study of temperature rise measurement in a tissue phantom as an alternative way for characterization of the therapeutic high intensity focused ultrasonic field

The feasibility that temperature field measurements in vitro as an alternative way to characterize the high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) field used in therapeutic applications has been explored in a phantom study. Thermocouples (copper-constantan, diameter 0.125 mm) are embedded in a phantom filled with tissue mimicking material that simulates the thermal and acoustic properties of soft-tissue. The temperature rises as a function of ultrasound exposure time near the focus of a HIFU transducer (1.1 MHz, active radius a = 32 mm, geometric focal length = 62 mm) of various acoustic powers up to 30 W are measured and compared with predicted values using a simple nonlinear Gaussian model. The experimental results can be explained well by the model if no acoustic cavitation takes place. When the acoustic power become higher (>5 W) and the local temperature elevation >15 °C and the local temperature is >40 °C at the focal point, cavitation vapor bubbles appear. The presence of the cavitation bubbles may increase the temperature rise rate initially. The bubble aggregates may form along the beam axis under sonication and then eventually makes the temperature elevation reach a saturated value. When acoustic cavitation occurs, the bubble-assisted enhancement of the initial temperature rise (exposure time t < 2 s) can still be predicted by the theory.

Self-calibrating 3D-ultrasound-based bone registration for minimally invasive orthopedic surgery

Intraoperative freehand three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound (3D-US) has been proposed as a noninvasive method for registering bones to a preoperative computed tomography image or computer-generated bone model during computer-aided orthopedic surgery (CAOS). In this technique, an US probe is tracked by a 3-D position sensor and acts as a percutaneous device for localizing the bone surface. However, variations in the acoustic properties of soft tissue, such as the average speed of sound, can introduce significant errors in the bone depth estimated from US images, which limits registration accuracy. We describe a new self-calibrating approach to US-based bone registration that addresses this problem, and demonstrate its application within a standard registration scheme. Using realistic US image data acquired from 6 femurs and 3 pelves of intact human cadavers, and accurate Gold Standard registration transformations calculated using bone-implanted fiducial markers, we show that self-calibrating registration is significantly more accurate than a standard method, yielding an average root mean squared target registration error of 1.6 mm. We conclude that self-calibrating registration results in significant improvements in registration accuracy for CAOS applications over conventional approaches where calibration parameters of the 3D-US system remain fixed to values determined using a preoperative phantom-based calibration.

Bio-acoustic thermal lensing and nonlinear propagation in focused ultrasound surgery using large focal spots: a parametric study

It is well known that the acoustic properties of soft tissue have a dependence on tissue temperature. This is of particular interest in focused ultrasound surgery since the mechanism of action of focused ultrasound surgery is to kill targeted tissue by inducing localized heating by ultrasound absorption, and hence cautery of that tissue. However, the act of localized heating induces a change in the acoustic properties of the targeted tissue and tissue surrounding it. This phenomenon distorts the incoming acoustic wavefront, and has been termed the thermal lens effect for this reason. Furthermore, nonlinear effects in acoustic propagation become non-negligible at the ultrasound intensities required for therapeutic action.This paper examines the importance of the thermal lens effect and nonlinear tissue properties by simulating a variety of clinically applicable phased array transducer configurations that have not yet been appropriately analysed using a full three-dimensional nonlinear treatment of acoustic propagation. The significance of the thermal lens effect is characterized by comparing the simulation of coupled acoustic and thermal propagation with an uncoupled treatment; neglecting thermal lensing typically produces a movement of 1 to 2 mm in the predicted position of the focus towards the transducer.The results also show that the classical methods of acoustic propagation can produce grossly erroneous results under certain clinically relevant transducer configurations and that an acoustic field scan with a hydrophone may not accurately predict therapeutic effect.

Evidence for mechanisms of ultrasonic attenuation in tissue derived from measurements on myocardium

Although reports have suggested that protein content, especially collagen content, may be a significant determinant of the acoustic properties of soft tissue, the responsible mechanisms have not been established. Two classes of mechanisms have been considered: (1) structural, conformational, or chemical relaxations of the macromolecular constituents, and (2) processes arising from the inhomogeneous nature of tissue, such as viscous relative motion. As an approach toward identifying the mechanisms, the present investigations address quantitatively the relationship between the ultrasonic attenuation and certain physical properties of myocardial tissue. Myocardial infarction provides a method for investigating the relationship between collagen content and the ultrasonic attenuation, since increased concentration of collagen has been reported in areas of infarct. Collagen concentration was determined quantitatively using an assay for hydroxyproline. Measurements were conducted in vitro on approximately 900 sites from 60 dogs. The dependence of the ultrasonic attenuation on frequency and temperature, as well as on collagen concentration, was investigated to provide evidence of the mechanisms responsible for the attenuation.