Arterial elasticity has been proposed as an independent predictor of cardiovascular diseases and mortality. Identification of the different propagating modes in thin shells can be used to characterize the elastic properties. Ultrasound radiation force was used to generate local mechanical waves in the wall of a urethane tube or an excised pig carotid artery. The waves were tracked using pulse-echo ultrasound. A modal analysis using two-dimensional discrete fast Fourier transform was performed on the time-space signal. This allowed the visualization of different modes of propagation and characterization of dispersion curves for both structures. The urethane tube/artery was mounted in a metallic frame, embedded in tissue-mimicking gelatin, cannulated, and pressurized over a range of 10-100 mmHg. The k-space and the dispersion curves of the urethane tube showed one mode of propagation, with no effect of transmural pressure. Fitting of a Lamb wave model estimated Young's modulus in the urethane tube around 560 kPa. Young's modulus of the artery ranged from 72 to 134 kPa at 10 and 100 mmHg, respectively. The changes observed in the artery dispersion curves suggest that this methodology of exciting mechanical waves and characterizing the modes of propagation has potential for studying arterial elasticity.

Diastolic dysfunction is the inability of the left ventricle to supply sufficient stroke volumes under normal physiological conditions and is often accompanied by stiffening of the left-ventricular myocardium. A noninvasive technique capable of quantifying viscoelasticity of the myocardium would be beneficial in clinical settings. Our group has been investigating the use of Shearwave Dispersion Ultrasound Vibrometry (SDUV), a noninvasive ultrasound based method for quantifying viscoelasticity of soft tissues. The primary motive of this study is the design and testing of viscoelastic materials suitable for validation of the Lamb wave Dispersion Ultrasound Vibrometry (LDUV), an SDUV-based technique for measuring viscoelasticity of tissues with plate-like geometry. We report the results of quantifying viscoelasticity of urethane rubber and gelatin samples using LDUV and an embedded sphere method. The LDUV method was used to excite antisymmetric Lamb waves and measure the dispersion in urethane rubber and gelatin plates. An antisymmetric Lamb wave model was fitted to the wave speed dispersion data to estimate elasticity and viscosity of the materials. A finite element model of a viscoelastic plate submerged in water was used to study the appropriateness of the Lamb wave dispersion equations. An embedded sphere method was used as an independent measurement of the viscoelasticity of the urethane rubber and gelatin. The FEM dispersion data were in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions. Viscoelasticity of the urethane rubber and gelatin obtained using the LDUV and embedded sphere methods agreed within one standard deviation. LDUV studies on excised porcine myocardium sample were performed to investigate the feasibility of the approach in preparation for open-chest in vivo studies. The results suggest that the LDUV technique can be used to quantify mechanical properties of soft tissues with a plate-like geometry.

Characterization of the viscoelastic material properties of soft tissue has become an important area of research over the last two decades. Our group has been investigating the feasibility of using Shearwave Dispersion Ultrasound Vibrometry (SDUV) method to excite Lamb waves in organs with plate-like geometry to estimate the viscoelasticity of the medium of interest. The use of Lamb wave Dispersion Ultrasound Vibrometry (LDUV) to quantify mechanical properties of viscoelastic solids has previously been reported. Two organs, the heart wall and the spleen, can be readily modeled using plate-like geometries. The elasticity of these two organs is important because they change in pathological conditions. Diastolic dysfunction is the inability of the left ventricle (LV) of the heart to supply sufficient stroke volumes into the systemic circulation and is accompanied by the loss of compliance and stiffening of the LV myocardium. It has been shown that there is a correlation between high splenic stiffness in patients with chronic liver disease and strong correlation between spleen and liver stiffness. Here, we investigate the use of the SDUV method to quantify viscoelasticity of the LV free-wall myocardium and spleen by exciting Rayleigh waves on the organ’s surface and measuring the wave dispersion (change of wave velocity as a function of frequency) in the frequency range 40–500 Hz. An equation for Rayleigh wave dispersion due to cylindrical excitation was derived by modeling the excised myocardium and spleen with a homogenous Voigt material plate immersed in a nonviscous fluid. Boundary conditions and wave potential functions were solved for the surface wave velocity. Analytical and experimental convergence between the Lamb and Rayleigh waves is reported in a finite element model of a plate in a fluid of similar density, gelatin plate and excised porcine spleen and left-ventricular free-wall myocardium.

Increase in bladder stiffness could be associated with various pathophysiologic conditions. Measuring bladder viscoelasticity could be an important step towards understanding various disease processes and improving patient care. Here, we introduce ultrasound bladder vibrometry (UBV), a novel method for rapid and noninvasive measurement of bladder wall viscoelasticity. UBV uses acoustic radiation force to excite mechanical waves in the bladder wall and track the motion using ultrasound pulse-echo techniques. Fourier domain analysis of the tissue motion versus time is used to calculate the phase velocity dispersion (change of phase velocity as a function of frequency). The measured phase velocity dispersion is fit with the antisymmetric Lamb wave model to estimate tissue elasticity and viscosity. We used finite element analysis of viscoelastic plate deformation to investigate the effect of curvature on Lamb wave dispersion and showed that the effects of curvature are negligible. The feasibility of the UBV technique was demonstrated in ex vivo and in vivo settings. Elasticity and viscosity of excised pig at various filling volumes (V) and pressures (p) were found to be µ1 = 9.6 kPa and µ2 = 0.2 Pa s (V = 187 ml and p = 8.6 mmHg), µ1 = 48.7 kPa and µ2 = 3.5 Pa s (V = 267 ml and p = 17.6 mmHg), and µ1 = 106.9 kPa and µ2 = 1.5 Pa s (V = 327 ml and p = 27.6 mmHg) respectively. Transabdominal measurements in an anesthetized pig found values of bladder elasticity µ1 = 26.1 kPa and viscosity µ2 = 0.9 Pa s and demonstrate the ability of UBV to perform in vivo measurements. The results presented in this paper introduce a novel technique for measuring mechanical properties of the bladder and lay the foundation for further investigation of the effects of pathology on bladder viscoelasticity.

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