3D sonoelastography for visualization of tumors

Sonoeleastography is used to distinguish regions of relative stiffness within soft tissues. Sonoelastography relies on color Doppler information from the forced vibration of soft tissues. Stiff regions, such as certain tumors, are demarcated by a deficit or void in the normal vibration pattern. This technique was applied to a phantom containing isoechoic tumors. Forced vibration between 100 Hz and 500 Hz were applied to the phantom. A series of successive images were taken while traversing the volume in 1 mm increments. The images were then used to create a three-dimensional representation of the shape and size of the detected tumor. This work was accomplished with a 7 MHz linear probe using 5 MHz color Doppler imaging on a GE Logiq 700 MR ultrasound scanner. A preliminary report on 3D tumor detection in in-vitro prostates is presented