Patent ID: 11872082
Assignee: ECHOSENS
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 12:
13. An elastography method, implemented by a device that comprises a probe including:
a single ultrasound transducer; or a plurality of ultrasound transducers, all ultrasound transducers of the probe being motionless with respect to each other, and
a low frequency vibrator, arranged to induce a displacement of said ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers towards a tissue to be characterized,
the method comprising:
controlling the low frequency vibrator to induce the displacement of said ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers towards said tissue,
controlling said ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers to emit a sequence of ultrasound pulses in the tissue to be characterized, and acquiring echo signals received by the ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers in response to the ultrasound pulses emitted, to track how elastic waves, induced in the tissue by the displacement of the ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers, travel in the tissue,
the method further comprising, for at least one ultrasound pulse of the sequence of ultrasound pulses emitted:
generating a temporal offset upon emission, by which the emission of said at least one ultrasound pulse is temporally shifted such that a temporal duration between two successive ultrasound pulses varies in said sequence of ultrasound pulses,
and/or generating a temporal offset upon reception, by which an echo signal acquired in response to the emitted at least one ultrasound pulse is temporally shifted,
so as to compensate for a temporal shift of said echo signal with respect to other echo signals received, caused by the displacement of the ultrasound transducer or plurality of ultrasound transducers occurring during said sequence of ultrasound pulses,
the temporal offset upon emission and/or the temporal offset upon reception being adjusted so that a difference thereof varies as a function of 2·d/vus, where d is the displacement of the transducer or plurality of transducers at the time of emission, and where vus is the speed of ultrasound in said tissue.