Coupling ultrasound and precision mechanical testing to measure large deformation in vivo tissue mechanical properties.

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Clarius designs a range of wireless ultrasound systems providing high image quality for medical and research applications. Ultrasound technology can be used to measure tissue material properties in addition to imaging and this can be important for diagnosing or understanding clinical conditions. However, using ultrasound to measure tissue properties has so far been limited to measuring only small deformations or measuring relative differences in tissues but not directly measuring properties. The primary objective of this project is to explore the possibility of linking ultrasound with precision mechanical testing to develop a protocol to quantify large deformation soft tissue properties in live humans. In order to do this we will need to first design some custom fixtures to integrate the two systems and design an experimental protocol that can be easily repeated across different human test subjects. Finally we will conduct a pilot trial with 15 human test subjects to assess the integrated system to compare the tissue mechanics predicted by traditional elastography methods with the large deformation properties measured by the integrated system. The benefit to Canada of this research is two-fold, supporting the development of novel products at a Canadian company and demonstrating the potential value of tissue mechanics for non-invasively diagnosing medical conditions.