I-Corps: Tissue Kinematics Quantification

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于临床医生能够通过量化对手术的实时组织运动学反应来评估对个体患者实施的治疗效果。虽然客观化治疗干预结果的工具是可取的，但它们并不经常可用，因为手术的结果通常是未知的，直到为时已晚，无法改变结果。这种延误可能会加剧患者的症状，需要额外的干预或诊断测试，增加费用和专业责任。这一创新极大地提高了客观化治疗结果或计划干预的可能性，以确保治疗成功。例如，这项创新可以量化子宫剖腹产疤痕组织的完整性，使产科医生和妇科医生在分娩时降低有剖腹产史的妇女的风险。其他有前景的应用包括更精确的语言病理诊断和物理治疗治疗验证。I-Corps的这个项目基于一种创新方法，即测量组织和体液的位移和应变，以确定临床试验的准确性和客观性以及治疗程序的有效性。新方法开发，处理图像时间序列获得使用典型的诊断工具，如超声，MRI，或CT扫描成像，量化目标组织位移和应变。当代的方法，如组织多普勒成像，需要横切面成像，限制应变测量单一成分。本文开发的方法无需自然标记即可识别函数，并以更精细的分辨率产生应变张量场的所有分量。此外，通过进行多次体外和体内实验，评估了这种新方法功能的可重复性。该方法的多功能性已经通过量化各种生物组织的运动学来证明，例如正中神经和坐骨神经、周围肌肉和皮下组织。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is clinicians being able to evaluate therapy impact implemented on individual patients by quantifying real-time tissue kinematics response to a procedure. While tools that objectify therapeutic intervention outcomes are desirable, they are not often available, where the procedure's results are usually unknown until it is too late to redirect the outcomes. Such a delay could exacerbate a patient's symptoms, requiring additional interventions or diagnostic tests, increasing costs and professional liabilities. This innovation greatly improves the possibility of objectifying therapy outcomes or planned interventions to ensure success on performed treatments. As an example, this innovation can quantify uterine C-section scar tissue integrity, allowing Obstetricians and Gynecologists to reduce risk during births that involve women with previous C-section history. Additional promising applications include, more precise speech language pathology diagnosis and physical therapy treatment validation.This I-Corps project is based on an innovative method that measures displacement and strain in tissue and body fluid for determining the accuracy and objectivity of clinical tests and the effectiveness of treatment procedures. The novel method developed, processes an image time series obtained using typical diagnostic tools, such as ultrasound, MRI, or CT scan imaging, to quantify target tissue displacement and strain. Contemporary methods, such as Tissue Doppler Imaging, require cross-sectional plane imaging, restricting strain measurements to a single component. The method developed here identifies functions without the necessity for natural markers and yields all components of the strain tensor field at a much finer resolution. Further, repeatability of this novel method's function has been assessed by conducting multiple in vitro and in vivo experiments. The method's versatility has been demonstrated by quantifying kinematics for variety of biological tissues, such as median and sciatic nerves, surrounding muscle, and subcutaneous tissue.