From ultrafast ultrasonic imaging to elasticity imaging

Abstract

Recent developments of ultrafast ultrasound imaging scanners open very exciting possibilities in the field of medical ultrasound. Thanks to the new design of the most recent ultrasound scanners that use a fully software-based ultrasound platform, frame rates as large as 10.000 frames/s are reached today. Compared to classical ultrasound scanners that delivered some 100 frames/s, these new possibilities represent a complete breakthrough. We will describe various innovations that leverage ultrafast ultrasound imaging. The first one is a new imaging mode that provides quantitative imaging of tissue elasticity by following the propagation mechanical shear waves with a spatial resolution and precision that were never obtained with classical techniques. This is the field of Shear Wave Imaging that shows many applications in cancer diagnostics, fibrosis evaluation as well as cardio-vascular applications. A second innovation is a new way to perform Doppler flow analysis, from ultrafast scanners, changing completely the performances and workflow paradigms of Color and PW modes. Various results obtained in vivo with ultrasensitive Doppler mode will also be presented.