Systems and methods for tissue characterization using multiple aperture ultrasound

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12514551-B2
Application number	US-202018250071-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2020
Priority date	Oct 21, 2020
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

Changes in tissue stiffness have long been associated with disease. Systems and methods for determining the stiffness of tissues using ultrasonography may include a device for inducing a propagating shear wave in tissue and tracking the speed of propagation, which is directly related to tissue stiffness and density. The speed of a propagating shear wave may be detected by imaging a tissue at a high frame rate and detecting the propagating wave as a perturbance in successive image frames relative to a baseline image of the tissue in an undisturbed state. In some embodiments, sufficiently high frame rates may be achieved by using a ping-based ultrasound imaging technique in which unfocused omnidirectional pings are transmitted (in an imaging plane or in a hemisphere) into a region of interest. Receiving echoes of the omnidirectional pings with multiple receive apertures allows for substantially improved lateral resolution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of identifying tissue edges with ultrasound imaging, comprising the steps of:
transmitting a first unfocused ultrasound pulse into a tissue region of interest including one or more tissue edges; transmitting a second unfocused ultrasound pulse into the tissue region of interest; receiving echoes of the first unfocused ultrasound pulse and the second unfocused ultrasound pulse; identifying one or more speckle noise patterns associated with the one or more tissue edges in the received echoes; assigning fiducial markers to the one or more tissue edges; transmitting a third unfocused ultrasound pulse into the tissue region of interest; receiving echoes of the third unfocused pulse; forming one or more images of the tissue region of interest with the received echoes of the third unfocused pulse; measuring a movement of the fiducial markers in the one or more images; and computing a tissue density of at least one tissue within the tissue region of interest using the movement of the fiducial markers.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first unfocused ultrasound pulse has greater acoustic energy than the third unfocused ultrasound pulse.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the first unfocused ultrasound pulse is transmitted with more ultrasound transducers than the third unfocused ultrasound pulse.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the speckle noise patterns are caused by reflections of the first unfocused ultrasound pulse from the one or more tissue edges.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein measuring the movement comprises measuring a distance traveled by the fiducial markers in response to the third unfocused ultrasound pulse.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein measuring the movement comprises measuring a propagation speed of the fiducial markers in response to the third unfocused ultrasound pulse.

Assignees

• Maui Imaging Inc

Inventors

• Specht David J
• Smith David M
• Atmeh Elias M
• Call Josef

Classifications

• G01S15/8929

  using a three-dimensional transducer configuration · CPC title

• G01S15/8927

  using simultaneously or sequentially two or more subarrays or subapertures · CPC title

• G01S7/52073

  Production of cursor lines, markers or indicia by electronic means · CPC title

• G01S7/52071

  Multicolour displays; using colour coding; Optimising colour or information content in displays, e.g. parametric imaging · CPC title

• G01S7/52042

  determining elastic properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target (diagnostic techniques involving the measurement of strain A61B8/485) · CPC title