Deffieux Thomas, Montaldo Gabriel, Tanter Mickaël, Fink Mathias
Laboratoire Ondes et Acoustique, ESPCI, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM, Université Paris VII, 75005 Paris, France.
IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2009 Mar;28(3):313-22. doi: 10.1109/TMI.2008.925077.
In vivo assessment of dispersion affecting the propagation of visco-elastic waves in soft tissues is key to understand the rheology of human tissues. In this paper, the ability of the supersonic shear imaging (SSI) technique to generate planar shear waves propagating in tissues is fully exploited. First, by strongly limiting shear wave diffraction in the imaging plane, this imaging technique enables to discriminate between the usually concomitant influences of both medium rheological properties and diffraction affecting the shear wave dispersion. Second, transient propagation of these plane shear waves in soft tissues can be measured using echographic images acquired at very high frame. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that dispersion curves, which characterize the rheological behavior of tissues by measuring the frequency dependence of shear wave speed and attenuation, can be recovered in the 75-600 Hz frequency range. Based on a phase difference algorithm, the dispersion curves are computed in 1 cm2 regions of interest from the acquired propagation movie. In vivo measurements in Biceps Brachii muscle and liver of three healthy volunteers show important differences in the rheological behavior of these different tissues. Liver tissue appears to be much more dispersive with a phase velocity ranging from approximately 1.5 m/s at 75 Hz to approximately 3 m/s at 500 Hz whereas muscle tissue shows an important anisotropy, shear waves propagating longitudinally to the muscular fibers are almost nondispersive while those propagating transversally are very dispersive with a shear wave speed ranging from 0.5 to 2 m/s between 75 and 500 Hz. The estimation of dispersion curves is local and can be performed separately in different regions of the organ. This signal processing approach based on the SSI modality introduces the new concept of in vivo shear wave spectroscopy (SWS) that could become an additional tool for tissue characterization. This paper demonstrates the in vivo ability of this SWS to quantify both local shear elasticity and dispersion in real time.
体内评估影响粘弹性波在软组织中传播的频散对于理解人体组织的流变学至关重要。在本文中,充分利用了超声剪切波成像(SSI)技术产生在组织中传播的平面剪切波的能力。首先,通过在成像平面中强烈限制剪切波衍射,这种成像技术能够区分通常同时存在的介质流变特性和衍射对剪切波频散的影响。其次,可以使用以非常高的帧率采集的超声图像来测量这些平面剪切波在软组织中的瞬态传播。体外和体内实验表明,通过测量剪切波速度和衰减的频率依赖性来表征组织流变行为的频散曲线可以在75 - 600 Hz频率范围内恢复。基于相位差算法,从采集的传播视频中在1 cm²的感兴趣区域计算频散曲线。对三名健康志愿者肱二头肌和肝脏的体内测量显示,这些不同组织的流变行为存在重要差异。肝脏组织似乎具有更强的频散性,相速度在75 Hz时约为1.5 m/s,在500 Hz时约为3 m/s,而肌肉组织表现出重要的各向异性,沿肌纤维纵向传播的剪切波几乎没有频散,而横向传播的剪切波则具有很强的频散性,在75至500 Hz之间剪切波速度范围为0.5至2 m/s。频散曲线的估计是局部的,可以在器官的不同区域分别进行。这种基于SSI模式的信号处理方法引入了体内剪切波光谱学(SWS)的新概念,它可能成为组织表征的另一种工具。本文展示了这种SWS在体内实时量化局部剪切弹性和频散的能力。