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

Committee:

Dr. Stanislav Emelianov, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Brooks Lindsey, BME

Dr. Costas Arvanitis, ME

Dr. Levent Degertekin, ECE

Dr. Scott Hollister, BME

Abstract: The objective of this dissertation research is to develop novel ultrasound elastography (i.e., elasticity imaging) methods for medical diagnosis, treatment monitoring as well as image-guide therapy by addressing the challenges of the current ultrasound elastography technology in improving elasticity image quality, characterizing non-bulk tissues/organs, and overcoming the effects of physiological motions in degrading imaging quality and measurement accuracy. 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 major work of this dissertation includes (1) developing a dual-mode elastography method for noninvasive assessment of tissue internal pressure, (2) developing a dual-transducer method for high-frequency shear wave elastography, (3) developing a Scholte wave based surface wave elastography method for imaging superficial tissues, and (4) developing and validating an ultrasonic guided wave method for the cardiac elastography application in a rodent model.