Abstract
Palpation is an established screening procedure for the detection of several superficial cancers including breast, thyroid, prostate, and liver tumors through both self and clinical examinations. This is because solid masses typically have distinct stiffnesses compared to the surrounding normal tissue. In this paper, the application of Harmonic Motion Imaging (HMI) for tumor detection based on its stiffness as well as its relevance in thermal treatment is reviewed. HMI uses an amplitude-modulated, focused ultrasound (FUS) beam to generate an oscillatory acoustic radiation force for an internal, non-contact palpation to internally estimate relative tissue hardness. HMI studies have dealt with the estimation of tissue dynamic motion in response to an oscillatory force at the same frequency, and have been shown feasible in simulations, phantoms, ex vivo human and bovine tissues as well as animals in vivo. Since it uses a FUS beam, HMI can also be used in an ideal integration setting with thermal ablation using High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), which also leads to an alteration in the tumor stiffness. In this paper, a short review of HMI is provided that encompasses the findings in all the aforementioned areas. The findings presented herein demonstrate that the HMI displacement can depict the underlying tissue stiffness, and the HMI image of the relative stiffness could accurately detect and characterize the tumor or thermal lesion based on its distinct properties. HMI may thus constitute a non-ionizing, cost-efficient and reliable complementary method for tumor detection, localization, diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
Keywords: Ablation, Acoustic radiation force, breast, harmonic motion imaging, tumor, displacement
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