Patent ID: 9585631
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: A61B,G01S,G06T

Claim:
1. A system for determining a mechanical property of a biological sample, the system comprising: an acoustic force generating device to remotely apply an acoustic force to a target location within the sample volume to induce sample displacement along an axial direction at the target location, wherein the axial direction is the direction of the applied acoustic force, the acoustic force generating device including an amplitude-modulated focused ultrasound transducer that focuses ultrasound energy at the target location to oscillate a focal region at the target location at approximately twice a modulation frequency responsively to an acoustic radiation force generated by the focused ultrasound transducer; a displacement measuring device configured to, simultaneously with a force generated by the force generating device, acquire acoustic data representing an induced sample displacement along the axial direction from the target location; the displacement measuring device being configured to measure a displacement of the sample at the target location and at least another location along the axial direction so as to permit a determination of an axial strain of the sample; a processing device configured to determine an axial displacement of the target location along the axial direction from the acquired acoustic data and to calculate the axial strain therefrom, the processing device being further configured to determine a deformation of the target location along a direction orthogonal to the axial direction by calculating a spatial derivative of the measured axial displacement, the processing device being further configured to determine a mechanical property of the sample based on the applied acoustic force and the axial displacement; the processing device being further configured to generate an estimate of modulus of elasticity of the sample from the axial strain, and the deformation along a direction orthogonal to the axial direction.