System and method for non-invasive determination of tissue wall viscoelasticity using ultrasound vibrometry

摘要

System and method for determining viscoelasticity of curved tissue walls using ultrasound bladder vibrometry (UBV). The UBV is a non-invasive technique utilizing, in a specific case, a focused ultrasound radiation force to excite Lamb waves in a curved bladder wall and pulse-echo techniques to track the tissue deformation propagating through such curved wall. Cross-spectral analysis is used to calculate the wave velocity, which is directly related to the elastic properties of the bladder wall.

主权项

1. A method for characterizing a parameter representing a mechanical property of a tissue wall, the method comprising:
with a transducer, detecting ultrasonic energy reflected by multiple locations along the tissue wall that is subject to stress to form ultrasonic echo data, wherein said tissue wall having geometric boundaries and defining a volume enclosed by the tissue wall, said tissue wall separating a fluid material contained in said volume from a rigid material outside of the tissue wall, and determining dispersion data representing a mechanical deformation of said tissue wall from said echo data.