Ultrasound Transducer for Deep Quantitative Elastography

摘要

Ultrasound elastography is a new technique capable of estimating the elasticity of soft tissue. In the present work, the elastography technique studied is the imaging by acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI). It uses a transducer to vibrate a tissue remotely using a focused acoustic beam, and focused tracking beams are used to monitor tissue displacement. This method is interesting because it allows a quantitative analysis of the mechanical properties of soft tissues. However, ARFI is limited to depths lower than 80 mm, which prevents its use in obese patients due to the inability of the transducers to concentrate the required energy at higher depths without compromising the patient's health. In this work, a 32-element linear matrix transducer was developed to concentrate energies at high depths. First, it was tested in pulse-echo mode. The next step will be to apply the ultrasound wave-focus technique to a 120 mm point that will be monitored using a hydrophone.