A team of engineers at the University of California, San Diego has developed a stretchable ultrasonic array capable of serial, non-invasive, three-dimensional imaging of tissue as deep as four centimeters below the surface of human skin, with a spatial resolution of 0.5 millimeters. . This new method provides a longer-term, non-invasive alternative to current methods, with improved depth of penetration.
The research comes out of the lab of Sheng Xu, professor of nanoengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and corresponding author of the study. The article, “Stretchable Ultrasonic Devices for Three-Dimensional Mapping of Deep Tissue Modulus,” is published in the May 1, 2023 issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.
“We invented a wearable device that can frequently assess the stiffness of human tissue,” said Hongjie Hu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Xu group and a co-author of the study. “In particular, we embedded an array of ultrasound elements into a soft elastomeric matrix and used stretchable serpentine wave electrodes to connect these elements, enabling the device to be tailored to human skin for serial assessment of tissue stiffness. “.
The elastography monitoring system can provide serial, non-invasive, three-dimensional mapping of deep tissue mechanical properties. This has several key applications:
- In medical research, serial data on pathological tissues can provide crucial information about the progression of diseases such as cancer, which normally causes cells to harden.
- Monitoring of muscles, tendons and ligaments can help diagnose and treat sports injuries.
- Current treatments for liver and cardiovascular diseases, along with some chemotherapy agents, can affect the stiffness of the tissues. Continuous elastography could help assess the efficacy and delivery of these drugs. This could help create new treatments.
In addition to monitoring cancerous tissue, this technology can also be applied in other scenarios:
- Monitoring of fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver. By using this technology to assess the severity of liver fibrosis, medical professionals can accurately track the progression of the disease and determine the most appropriate course of treatment.
- Evaluate musculoskeletal disorders such as tendinitis, tennis elbow, and carpal tunnel syndrome. By monitoring changes in tissue stiffness, this technology can provide valuable insight into the progression of these conditions, allowing clinicians to develop individualized treatment plans for their patients.
- Diagnosis and monitoring of myocardial ischemia. By monitoring the elasticity of the arterial wall, doctors can identify early signs of the condition and make timely interventions to prevent further damage.
Portable ultrasound patches fulfill the screening function of traditional ultrasound, and also overcome the limitations of traditional ultrasound technology, such as testing only, testing only within hospitals, and the need for staff to operate.
“This allows patients to continuously monitor their health status anytime, anywhere,” Hu said.
This could help reduce misdiagnosis and deaths, as well as significantly reduce costs by providing a low-cost, non-invasive alternative to traditional diagnostic procedures.
“This new wave of portable ultrasound technology is driving a transformation in the field of healthcare monitoring, improving patient outcomes, lowering healthcare costs, and promoting widespread adoption of point-of-care diagnostics.” said Yuxiang Ma, a visiting student in the Xu group. and co-author of the study. “As this technology continues to develop, we are likely to see even more significant advances in the field of medical imaging and healthcare management.”
The matrix conforms to and acoustically couples with human skin, allowing accurate elastographic images validated with magnetic resonance elastography.
In tests, the device was used to map three-dimensional Young’s modulus distributions of tissues ex vivo, to detect microstructural damage in volunteer muscles before pain onset, and to monitor the dynamic recovery process of muscle injuries during physiotherapy.
The device consists of a 16 by 16 array. Each element is comprised of a 1-3 composite element and a backing layer made of a silver epoxy composite designed to absorb excessive vibration, expand bandwidth, and improve resolution. axial.
Professor Xu now markets this technology through Softsonics LLC.
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