Mechanical introscopy-a new modality of medical imaging for detection of breast and prostate cancer

摘要

Summary form only given. Mechanical introscopy is based on the reconstruction of the internal structure of soft body tissues by measuring the surface distribution of stress/strain patterns using a pressure sensor array. This new technology of medical imaging does not use any form of potentially hazardous radiation. It provides information on the internal structure of the organ and enables physicians to obtain values of the elasticity modulus of internal lesions and to characterize their hardness, which is indicative of cancer development. This paper presents the results of mathematical simulation and model experiments on visualizing the structure and evaluating the properties of internal tissues from a pattern of mechanical stresses developed by an array of pressure sensors that is pressed statically or dynamically against investigated tissues or a body part. The resulting pattern of mechanical stress and its changes as a function of applied pressure and time contain comprehensive information on the mechanical properties and geometry of the internal structures which can be calculated from the pattern by solving the inverse problem. Mechanical introscopy meets all the requirements for a mass cancer screening method: it is simple, fast, inexpensive and safe.