Novel Poroelastographic Imaging of Cancerous Tissues

描述(申请人提供)：组织中液体的收集、保留和流动与他们的健康和疾病状态有关。这项工作的长期目标是成像有效的可压缩特性，同时在体内、实时、高信噪比和诊断超声分辨率下跟踪流体在广泛范围的组织中的运动，并将它们与疾病联系起来。为了实现这一目标，我们建议使用新的弹性成像方法来直接、非侵入性地评估组织的硬度和可压缩性的局部变化。这项技术可能成为一种新的成像工具，它基于新的内在对比机制，用于各种疾病的检测和分期。特别是，我们预计至少有三个与癌症有关的重要医学领域，这种技术的发展可能会对这些领域做出重大贡献。这些是淋巴水肿区(主要是癌症患者)，通过可视化液体运输特征检测癌症及其与正常组织的区别，以及基于改变的机械和液体运输参数监测癌症治疗。目前探索性研究的假设是，有可能表征这些新的弹性成像技术的性能界限，以预测其在临床应用中的实际性能水平。本研究的目的如下：1.开发和扩展模拟工具来模拟和成像各种复杂实验条件下均匀和非均匀多孔弹性材料的随时间变化的力学行为；2.研究有效泊松比弹性图、多孔弹性图和有效泊松比时间常数弹性图的客观图像质量参数的理论上限和权衡；3.研究临床上实际降级(破坏)因素，如基本力学限制、超声频率相关衰减、帧速率和真实去相关噪声对体内可获得的客观图像质量的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The collection, retention and flow of fluids in tissues are related to their state of health and disease. The long term goal of this work is to image the effective compressibility properties and simultaneously track fluid movement over a wide range of time constants in tissues in vivo, in real time and at high signal-to-noise ratios and diagnostic ultrasound resolutions, and relate them to disease. To accomplish this goal we propose the use of new elastographic methodologies for the direct, noninvasive assessment of local changes in stiffness and compressibility of tissues. This technology may become a new imaging tool that is based on new intrinsic contrast mechanisms for the detection and staging of various diseases. In particular, we envisage at least three important medical areas related to cancer where the development of such a technology may make a significant contribution. These are the areas of lymphedema (primarily in cancer patients), the detection of cancers and their differentiation from normal tissues via the visualization of fluid transport characteristics, and the monitoring of cancer therapies based on altered mechanical and fluid transport parameters. The hypothesis of the present exploratory study is that it is possible to characterize the performance bounds of these novel elastographic techniques to predict their realistic performance levels in applications of clinical interest. The following aims are included in this investigation: 1. Develop and extend simulation tools to model and image the time-dependent mechanical behavior of homogeneous and non-homogeneous poroelastic materials in a variety of complex experimental conditions; 2. Investigate the theoretical upper bounds and tradeoffs in the objective image quality parameters of effective Poisson's ratio elastograms, poroelastograms and effective Poisson's ratio time constant elastograms; 3. Investigate the effect of clinically realistic de-rating (corrupting) factors such as fundamental mechanical limitations, ultrasonic frequency-dependent attenuation, frame rate and realistic decorrelation noise on the attainable objective image quality in vivo.