Abstract
Mechanical and transport properties of cancers such as Young's modulus (YM), Poisson's ratio (PR), and vascular permeability (VP) have great clinical importance in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. However, non-invasive estimation of these parameters in vivo is challenged by many practical factors. Elasticity imaging methods, such as 'poroelastography', require prolonged data acquisition, which can limit their clinical applicability. In this paper, we investigate a new method to perform poroelastography experiments, which results in shorter temporal acquisition windows. This method is referred to as 'short-time poroelastography' (STPE). Finite element (FE) and ultrasound simulations demonstrate that, using STPE, it is possible to accurately estimate YM, PR (within 10% error) using windows of observation (WoOs) of length as short as 1 underlying strain Time Constant (TC). The error was found to be almost negligible (< 3%) when using WoOs longer than 2 strain TCs. In the case of VP estimation, WoOs of at least 2 strain TCs are required to obtain an error < 8% (in simulations). The stricter requirement for the estimation of VP with respect to YM and PR is due its reliance on the transient strain behavior while YM and PR depend on the steady state strain values only. In vivo experimental data are used as a proof-of-principle of the potential applicability of the proposed methodology in vivo. The use of STPE may provide a means to efficiently perform poroelastography experiments without compromising the accuracy of the estimated tissue properties.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 1900411 |
Pages (from-to) | 1900411 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine |
Volume | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- Cancer imaging
- Poroelastography
- Strain time constant
- Vascular permeability
- Young's modulus and Poissona's ratio
- Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio
- Estimation
- Steady-state
- Strain
- In vivo
- Ultrasonic imaging
- Strain Time Constant
- Cancer
- Tumors
- Capillary Permeability
- Elasticity Imaging Techniques/methods
- Humans
- Ultrasonography/methods
- Elastic Modulus
- Neoplasms/diagnosis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biomedical Engineering