Posted on 04/05/2005 12:18:18 PM PDT by Teflonic
A Probe, Not an Echo Non-Invasive and Safe, a New USC System Images and Differentiates Soft Tissue With Unprecedented Detail and Precision
Friday, March 25, 2005 — Researchers at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering have successfully demonstrated a novel “High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography” (HUTT) system fthat offers 3D images of soft tissue that are superior to those produced by existing commercial X-ray, ultrasound or MRI units.
Vasilis Marmarelis, a professor of biomedical engineering at the Viterbi School, presented HUTT images of animal organ tissue in San Diego at the 28th International Acoustical Imaging Symposium on March 21st.
According to Marmarelis, HUTT offers nearly order-of-magnitude improvement in resolution of structures in soft tissue (i.e., 0.4 mm, compared to 2 mm for the best alternatives). Several other features promise to make the technology a scientific and clinical tool of great power:
-Robust algorithmic tools enable HUTT to differentiate separate types of tissue based on their distinctive “frequency-dependent attenuation” profiles, that should allow clinicians to distinguish malignant lesions from benign growths in a non-invasive and highly reliable manner.
-In addition to improved resolution, the system can locate tissue features with extreme precision in a objective, fixed-coordinate 3D grid, crucial for guiding surgical procedures.
-Scans can be performed in a matter of a few minutes and because they are ultrasonic, they do not use potentially harmful ionizing radiation.
-The system requires a minimum of special pre-scan procedures and appears likely, in clinical use, to be more comfortable for patients than alternatives.
"The HUTT imaging system is a novel and potentially very useful approach to diagnostic ultrasound,” said Dr. Phillip W. Ralls, a professor and vice chair in the USC Keck School of Medicine department of radiology. “The potential clinical benefits of the superb images obtained by this completely safe, non-invasive technique...
(Excerpt) Read more at viterbi.usc.edu ...
Good stuff, it will be interesting to see how much the system will cost.
It should revolutionize the pregnancy ultrasound field. The current 3-d and 4-d pics are already amazing. With a 0.4mm resolution, these new devices should make the pictures nearly photo-quality. That much harder to abort a baby that has truly recognizeable features.
Breast Cancer could be caught and diagnosed much earlier.......
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