Investigation of elastography

• Main Author: Dharshanaa
• Other Authors: Zhou YuFeng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/68244
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Elastography is a medical technique, which is used to generate images called elastograms, as opposed to the usual sonograms which use the local acoustic back scatter information from tissues. Instead, elastograms relate to the local strain distribution present in the tissue. It consists of the use of strain and elastic modulus variations to map strain images in the tissues, New information regarding the internal tissue structures can be investigated through elastography, which otherwise can go unattainable. In this report, tissue elasticity variation is first analysed using HIFU (High intensity focused Ultrasound) treatment. After which, the effects of HIFU is explored together with A-mode and B-mode. Experiments were conducted to obtain displacement and shear strain distribution maps using different modes to analyse and observe the behaviour of the tissue with the lesion. Single lesion and multiple lesion experiments were then performed to obtain displacement and shear strain distribution images for individual lesions and for lesions with a gap in between. Also, axial shear strain measurements enable us to identify any untreated gaps that may be present in between adjacent lesions, which may otherwise go undetected when using normal ultrasound techniques. Thus, apart from providing more accurate information on the lesion size measurement, elastography also enables the detection of gaps if they are present. Elastography would provide a better understanding of human tissue and detect lesions in human body so that treatment can be provided. Other potential applications include treatment to cancer and tumours. Discussion is made on finding of the feasibility of the method so that further development and improvement can be made for more advanced clinical applications.