Concurrent Visualization of Acoustic Radiation Force Displacement and Shear Wave Propagation with 7T MRI

Manual palpation is a common and very informative diagnostic tool based on estimation of changes in the stiffness of tissues that result from pathology. In the case of a small lesion or a lesion that is located deep within the body, it is difficult for changes in mechanical properties of tissue to be detected or evaluated via palpation. Furthermore, palpation is non-quantitative and cannot be used to localize the lesion. Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) can also be used to evaluate the properties of biological tissues non-invasively. In this study, an MRgFUS system combines high field (7T) MR and 3 MHz focused ultrasound to provide high resolution MR imaging and a small ultrasonic interrogation region (~0.5 x 0.5 x 2 mm), as compared with current clinical systems. MR-Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging (MR-ARFI) provides a reliable and efficient method for beam localization by detecting micron-scale displacements induced by ultrasound mechanical forces. The first aim of this study is to develop a sequence that can concurrently quantify acoustic radiation force displacements and image the resulting transient shear wave. Our motivation in combining these two measurements is to develop a technique that can rapidly provide both ARFI and shear wave velocity estimation data, making it suitable for use in interventional radiology. Secondly, we validate this sequence in vivo by estimating the displacement before and after high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation, and we validate the shear wave velocity in vitro using tissue-mimicking gelatin and tofu phantoms. Such rapid acquisitions are especially useful in interventional radiology applications where minimizing scan time is highly desirable.

In vivo mapping of brain elasticity in small animals using shear wave imaging

A combination of radiation force and ultrafast ultrasound imaging is used to both generate and track the propagation of a shear wave in the brain whose local speed is directly related to stiffness, characterized by the dynamic shear modulus G*. When performed on trepanated rats, this approach called shear wave imaging (SWI) provides 3-D brain elasticity maps reaching a spatial resolution of 0.7 mm×1 mm×0.4 mm with a good reproducibility (<13%). The dynamic shear modulus of brain tissues exhibits values in the 2-25 kPa range with a mean value of 12 kPa and is quantified for different anatomical regions. The anisotropy of the shear wave propagation is studied and the first in vivo anisotropy map of brain elasticity is provided. The propagation is found to be isotropic in three gray matter regions but highly anisotropic in two white matter regions. The good temporal resolution (~10 ms per acquisition) of SWI also allows a dynamic estimation of brain elasticity to within a single cardiac cycle, showing that brain pulsatility does not transiently modify local elasticity. SWI proves its potential for the study of pathological modifications of brain elasticity both in small animal models and in clinical intra-operative imaging.