Researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and their collaborators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation (CURT) have developed a new medical imaging device: the Noncontact Laser Ultrasound (NCLUS). This laser-based ultrasound system provides images of interior body features such as organs, fat, muscle, tendons, and blood vessels. The system also measures bone strength and may have the potential to track disease stages over time.
These echoes manifest from the acoustic impedance, or change in tissue strength , from fat, muscle, organs, blood vessels, and bone deep inside the body. The probe receives the returning echoes, which are assembled into representational images of the body's internal features. Specialized processing schemes are used to construct the shapes of the tissue features in 2D or 3D, and these constructions are then displayed on a computer monitor in real time.
The image distortion and positional reference uncertainty are significant enough that ultrasound cannot resolve with sufficient confidence, for example, whether a tumor is getting larger or smaller and precisely where the tumor is located in the host tissue. Furthermore, the uncertainty in feature size, shape, and position will vary upon repeat measurement, even for the same sonographer trying to retrace their steps.
By fully automating the process for acquiring ultrasound images, NCLUS has the potential to reduce the need for a sonographer and to mitigate operator variability. The laser positioning can be accurately reproduced, thus eliminating variability across repeated measurements. Because the measurement is noncontact, no localized tissue compaction or its related distortion to image features occur.
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