Patent attributes
The characterization of tissue viscoelastic properties requires the measurement of tissue displacements over a region of interest at frequencies that exceed significantly the frame rates of conventional medical imaging devices. The present invention involves using bandpass sampling to track high-frequency tissue displacements. With this approach, high frequency signals limited to a frequency bandwidth can be sampled and reconstructed without aliasing at a sampling frequency that is lower than the Nyquist rate. With bandpass sampling, it is feasible to use conventional beam-forming on diagnostic ultrasound machines to perform high frequency dynamic elastography. The method is simple to implement as it does not require beam interleaving, additional hardware or synchronization and can be applied to magnetic resonance elastography.
