Acousto-Mechanical Imaging (AMI) is a combination of two imaging modalities: Ultrasound imaging (US) and mechanical imaging (MI). An advantage of the combination is that the stiffnesses of the ultrasound imaged object (human tissue) can be quantified absolutely.
The idea is to have a 3D printable structure in between an ultrasound probe and human tissue. And that the stiffness of tissue could be determined by observing (with ultrasound) the deformation at the structure-tissue interface. The structure should be transparent for ultrasound, such that as much as possible of the ultrasonic signal is transmitted into the tissue and thus the ultrasonic scan accuracy losses are minimized. The current implementation idea is to have a fluid-filled structure because it enhances the acoustic transmission through the structure.
The question I will try to answer is how to model the behavior of a 3D printed structure designed for Acousto-Mechanical Imaging of breast tissue. With the following sub-questions:
- What should be the effective stiffness and how do the parameters of the design affect the effective stiffness
- How do the parameters of the design affect the sensitivity
- How to achieve an acoustic impedance match