Toward Standardized Acoustic Radiation Force (ARF)-Based Ultrasound Elasticity Measurements With Robotic Force Control.
Toward Standardized Acoustic Radiation Force (ARF)-Based Ultrasound Elasticity Measurements With Robotic Force Control.
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DOI：
10.1109/tbme.2015.2497245
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发表时间：
2016-07
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Kazanzides P
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bell MA;Kumar S;Kuo L;Sen HT;Iordachita I;Kazanzides P
基于声辐射力（ARF）的测量组织弹性的方法需要从固定的超声探头传输聚焦的高能声脉冲，并基于超声跟踪产生的组织位移，以获得刚度图像或剪切波速估计。该方法已在生物医学应用，如肿瘤检测和组织纤维化分期中确立了益处。然而，一个限制是对施加的探针压力的依赖，这是难以手动控制的，并且禁止定量测量的标准化。为了克服这一限制，我们建立了一个机器人原型，控制探针接触力，用于剪切波速量化。该机器人通过控制力的增量施加于模拟组织的幻影和来自三名人类志愿者的体内腹部组织来评估。期望力和实测力之间的均方根误差在虚幻体中为0.07 N，在体内腹部组织脂肪层中更高。在2.5到30 n的压缩力范围内，平均剪切波速度在体外从3.7到4.5 m/s增加，在体内脂肪从1.0到3.0 m/s增加。在大多数情况下，机器人方法获得的剪切波速度的标准偏差很低（< 0.2 m/s），与基于半定量地标的方法获得的结果相当。研究结果为引入机器人系统来控制应用探针压力以进行基于arf的组织弹性测量提供了希望。这种方法在疾病进展的纵向研究、患者之间的比较研究和大规模多维弹性成像中具有潜在的益处。
Acoustic radiation force (ARF)-based approaches to measure tissue elasticity require transmission of a focused high-energy acoustic pulse from a stationary ultrasound probe and ultrasound-based tracking of the resulting tissue displacements to obtain stiffness images or shear wave speed estimates. The method has established benefits in biomedical applications such as tumor detection and tissue fibrosis staging. One limitation, however, is the dependence on applied probe pressure, which is difficult to control manually and prohibits standardization of quantitative measurements. To overcome this limitation, we built a robot prototype that controls probe contact forces for shear wave speed quantification. The robot was evaluated with controlled force increments applied to a tissue-mimicking phantom and in vivo abdominal tissue from three human volunteers. The root-mean-square error between the desired and measured forces was 0.07 N in the phantom and higher for the fatty layer of in vivo abdominal tissue. The mean shear wave speeds increased from 3.7 to 4.5 m/s in the phantom and 1.0 to 3.0 m/s in the in vivo fat for compressive forces ranging from 2.5 to 30 N. The standard deviation of shear wave speeds obtained with the robotic approach were low in most cases (< 0.2 m/s) and comparable to that obtained with a semiquantitative landmark-based method. Results are promising for the introduction of robotic systems to control the applied probe pressure for ARF-based measurements of tissue elasticity. This approach has potential benefits in longitudinal studies of disease progression, comparative studies between patients, and large-scale multidimensional elasticity imaging.