| Fri January 15th 2016 14:00 – 15:00 ZH286 | Seminar | Functional Imaging using Ultrasound Chris de Korte |
Details:With ultrasound imaging, the deformation of tissue can be measured. When a force is applied on the tissue. the tissue is deformed. Quantification of tissue deformation can be used to assess the mechanical properties of tissue (elastography). If the tissue under interrogation is actively deforming, the deformation is directly related to the function of the structure (strain imaging). The first approach can be used for atherosclerotic plaques characterization while with the latter application the contractility of the heart or skeletal muscles can be assessed.We developed radio frequency (rf) based ultrasound methods to assess the deformation at higher resolution and with higher accuracy than commercial methods using conventional image data (Tissue Doppler Imaging and 2D speckle tracking methods). However, this method is limited to measuring strain only along the ultrasound beam direction, so 1D. We further extended this method to multiple directions by using compounding of data acquired at multiple beam steered angles. In arteries, the presence of vulnerable plaques may lead to acute events like stroke and myocardial infarction. Consequently, timely detection of these plaques is of great diagnostic value. Non-invasive ultrasound strain compounding is currently being evaluated as diagnostic tool to identify the vulnerability of plaques. In the heart, we determined the strain locally and at high resolution resulting in a local assessment in contrary to conventional global functional parameters like cardiac output or shortening fraction. Strain imaging can also be applied in breast to identify and characterize tumors. We extended 2D strain imaging to full 3D strain imaging using an Automated Breast Volume Scanning (ABVS) system by incorporating strain imaging in combination with ultrafast plane wave imaging. Validation studies in a breast phantom reveals the feasibility of this technique. | ||
