JOphir R21 Imaging the Shear Strain at Breast

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究的长期目标是扩大新超声方法的开发和测试，以阐明发生在软组织边界及其附近的机械现象，这些现象可能是乳房和其他地方良性肿瘤与恶性肿瘤行为所特有的。这项工作的总体假设是，来自轴向剪切应变弹性图(ASS)的定量指标与非均匀组织中内部边界的组织结合有关，可以作为在体内无创性区分乳腺良恶性肿瘤的重要特征。为了验证这一假设，我们提出了以下目标：目标1：开发图形用户界面(图形用户界面)软件工具，帮助从轴向剪切应变弹性图中提取、估计和分析特征；以及目标2：对先前获得的弹性图数据库进行回顾性研究，以研究在活体内使用轴向剪切应变弹性图来区分经病理证实的乳腺肿瘤的良、恶性。术语‘粘合’将在一般意义上使用(如文献中所使用的)来描述肿瘤边界的机械特性。这可能是包裹体-背景边界的机械连锁作用。公共卫生相关性我们在这项申请中提出的研究旨在测试一种新的超声技术，该技术基于一种新的对比机制用于乳腺肿瘤的分类。这项技术最终可能会在医学的各个领域得到应用，如肿瘤检测、肿瘤分类、心血管肌肉功能、伤口愈合和脆弱斑块表征。这项新技术的应用可以提供强大的工具，补充和克服现有超声成像技术的一些局限性，同时保持基于超声的模式典型的低成本、高安全性和可获得性的优势。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this line of research is to expand the development and testing of novel ultrasound methodologies to elucidate the mechanical phenomena occurring at and near soft tissue boundaries that may be specific to the behavior of benign vs. malignant tumors in the breast and elsewhere. The overall hypothesis of this work is that quantitative metrics from axial-shear strain elastograms (ASSEs), which are related to tissue bonding at internal boundaries in inhomogeneous tissues, could serve as features that may become important in the noninvasive differentiation between benign and malignant breast tumors in vivo. To test this hypothesis we propose the following aims: Aim 1: Develop a Graphical User Interface (GUI) software tool that will aid in extracting, estimating, and analyzing features from axial-shear strain elastograms; and Aim 2: Conduct a retrospective study on a previously-acquired elastographic data base to investigate the use of axial-shear strain elastograms to discriminate pathologically-confirmed benign from malignant breast tumors in-vivo. The term 'bonding' will be used in a generic sense (as used in the literature) to describe the mechanical properties of the tumor boundary. This may refer to the mechanical interlocking at the inclusion-background boundary. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The research we propose in this application is aimed at testing a novel ultrasound technology based on a new contrast mechanism for breast tumor classification. This technology may eventually find applications in various areas of medicine such as tumor detection, tumor classification, cardiovascular muscle function, wound healing and vulnerable plaque characterization. The application of this novel technology may provide powerful tool that complement and overcome some of the limitations of existing ultrasound imaging techniques while maintaining the advantages of low costs, and high safety and accessibility typical of ultrasound-based modalities.