A new paradigm in ultrasound imaging

Today there is an intrinsic limitation regarding frame rate acquisition of ultrasound information coming from the body. This limitation is due in part to the speed at which ultrasound wave propagates in the tissue, but also to the architecture of every system on the market whereby the somewhat sequential nature for data acquisition limits the speed at which images can be displayed.

The new paradigm consists in the creation of a new ultrasound system architecture with heavily parallelized acquisition where the receive beamformer is achieved in software. With such a unique architecture we have demonstrated acquisition frame rate of more than 3000 frames/s. Such architecture is an enabler of new approaches to ultrasound: speed of sound optimization, transmit synthetic flat focus...

Some of those advantages will be demonstrated; however one of the most interesting approach is to leverage such frame rate for transient elastography. Transient elastography is a unique patented approach to elastography (assessment of tissue elasticity) totally user skill independent. The new approach consists in sending a shear wave in tissue and assess the speed at which the shear wave propagates. Shear wave velocity is directly proportional to the square root of the Young's modulus, therefore by inverse problem knowing the shear wave velocity we can derive the elastic properties of tissues.

We will demonstrate how one can generate shear wave propagation in tissues, why ultra fast frame rate acquisition is a must and share clinical results obtained at Institute Curie in Paris on patients with breast lesions.