Title:  Development of Ultrasound Elastography Methods for Biomechanical Assessment of Soft Tissues in Medical Diagnosis

Committee: 

Dr. Emelianov, Advisor 

Dr. Lindsey, Chair

Dr. Arvanitis

Abstract:

The objective of the proposed research is to develop novel ultrasound elastography (i.e., elasticity imaging) methods for disease diagnosis, physiological monitoring, and image-guided therapy by addressing the challenges of the current ultrasound elastography technology in improving spatial resolution, characterizing superficial tissues, and imaging tissues experiencing high-frequency physiological motions. The main reason that tissue elasticity has been attracting great interest in biomedical research is that many pathological and physiological processes of human beings including cancer, fibrosis, and aging can cause tissue elasticity change, and by characterizing tissue elasticity valuable information can be obtained for medical diagnosis and therapy. The proposed research in this thesis consists of the following projects: (1) developing a dual-transducer method for high-resolution shear wave elastography, (2) developing a surface wave elastography method for characterizing near-surface tissue elasticity, and (3) developing an in vivo cardiac elastography method on a mouse model. Furthermore, a dual-mode elastography method is also developed for noninvasive assessment of tissue internal pressure, an important biomechanical property of soft tissue, in addition to tissue elasticity.