High-intensity-focused ultrasound and phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography for high resolution surface acoustic wave elastography

Elastography has the ability of quantitatively evaluating the mechanical properties of soft tissue; thus it is helpful for diagnosis and treatment monitoring of many diseases, for example, skin diseases. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) have been proven to be a non-invasive, non-destructive method for accurate characterization of tissue elastic properties. Current SAW elastography using high-energy laser pulse or mechanical shaker still have some problems. In order to improve SAW elastography in medical application, a new technique was proposed in this paper, which combines high-intensity-focused ultrasound as a SAWs impulse inducer and phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography as a SAWs detector. A 2% agar-agar phantom and ex-vivo porcine skin were tested. The data were processed by a new algorithm based on the Fourier analysis. The results show that the proposed method has the capability of quantifying the elastic properties of soft tissue-mimicking materials. The lateral resolution of the elastogram has been significantly improved and the different layers in heterogeneous material could also been distinguished. Our improved technique of SAW elastography has a large potential to be widely applied in clinical use for skin disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring.