Scanning acoustic microscopy for characterization of neoplastic and inflammatory lesions of lymph nodes.

A scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) imaging system calculates and color codes speed of sound (SOS). We evaluated the SAM results for lymph node imaging and compared these results with those of light microscopy (LM). SAM showed normal structures and localized/diffuse lesions of the lymph node. Our results revealed that as a rule, soft areas such as cystic necrosis presented less SOS while harder areas such as coagulative necrosis, granulomas, and fibrosis exhibited greater SOS. SOS increased according to stromal desmoplastic reactions and cellular concentration. In neoplastic lesions, statistically significant differences in SOS were observed among scirrhous carcinomas, lymphomas, and medullary carcinomas. SAM provided the following benefits over LM: (1) images reflected the tissue elasticity of each lesion, (2) digitized SOS data could be statistically comparable, (3) images were acquired in a few minutes without special staining, (4) SAM images and echographic images were comparable for clinical ultrasound imaging study.