Rheological properties of biological fluids are closely linked to various physiological processes. For instance, imbalances in blood viscosity are closely linked to the development of conditions such as coronary heart disease, peripheral artery diseases, stroke, and hyperviscosity syndromes. However, existing rotational-based and tube-based rheometry devices are unsuitable for measuring the viscosity of biological fluids due to the need for sample contact and cleaning the testing chamber between each sample. Moreover, not all biological fluids can be sampled in significant volumes, as is the case with blood. In this study, we present a non-contact rheometry method based on capillary waves in a shallow regime for evaluating the viscosity of thin layer fluid (sub-millimeter to micrometer depth) using acoustic radiation force-based optical coherence elastography (ARF-OCE) and compared with theoretical simulations.
Rheological properties of biological fluids are closely linked with various physiological processes. Capillary waves are associated with rheological properties of fluids such as viscosity and surface tension. The phase velocity of capillary waves is a primary parameter for measuring rheological properties of fluids. For a fluid layer in a shallow fluid regime (the fluid depth is smaller than 0.05 times the wavelength), capillary waves play an important role especially in cell and molecular biology. Therefore, evaluating phase velocity of thin layers of a fluid is a key mechanism for understanding the rheological properties of the fluids in small scale. However, evaluating phase velocity of thin layer fluids with a non-contact has not been widely reported, and is challenging by using existing rotational-based and tube-based rheometry devices. Here we first report that phase velocities of capillary waves on thin layer fluids in shallow fluid regime can be determined. The acoustic radiation force (ARF) was used to create capillary waves on the thin layer fluids and a spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was used to detect particle motions of the waves. The experimental results were compared with the theoretical analysis. A 7.5 MHz single element transducer was used to produce the ARF to create capillary waves. The phase velocity of capillary waves on thin layer fluids were successfully determined by using the proposed elastography technique with the non-contact fashion, which paves the way for measuring viscosity of thin layer fluids in our near future study.
Optical coherence elastography (OCE) has been used successfully for characterizing changes tissue mechanical properties particularly in breast tissue and the eye. Many dynamic ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) methods have been developed over the past three decades that use propagating waves with different dynamic excitations. We have successfully translated excitation and analysis methods from SWE for applications using OCE. We report here recent developments that utilize focused ultrasound to produce acoustic radiation force or mechanical vibration. We have explored characterizing the rheological properties such as surface tension and viscosity of various fluids. Additionally, we have applied these OCE methods to soft tissues such as blood clots, aorta samples, and porcine kidneys. These techniques have opened new areas for tissue characterization that take advantage of the sensitivity and resolution of optical coherence tomography and the strengths of wave-based approaches for quantifying material properties.
Mechanical properties of tissues are an important indicator because they are associated with disease states. One of the common excitation sources in optical coherence elastography (OCE) to determine mechanical properties is acoustic radiation force (ARF). Using ARF as an excitation source requires a complicated focusing alignment, that potentially increases the difficulty for translational applications. Additionally, for tissue engineering applications, samples are usually cultured in a 35 mm Petri dish or 6-well cell culture plate. As the samples placed in a such limited space and with polystyrene material, using ARF as the excitation source could generate undesired reflected waves from rigid boundaries which affect the evaluation of mechanical properties, and acoustic energy for the ARF generation could be attenuated by the bottom of the plate. Here, we reported a new technique to evaluate the mechanical property of samples placed in 6- well cell culture plate without contacting the sample, named harmonic oscillation OCE. A homogeneous 5% gelatin phantom was fabricated and placed in a 6-well cell culture plate. The actuator was driven by a 300 Hz signal with a 15- cycle burst to vibrate the plate. The spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) system was used to make measurements with 100 μm lateral spacing and 3.5 μm axial resolution within 10 mm × 10 mm field of view (FOV). An 8-angle directional filter and low pass filter were used to decompose two-dimensional (2D) wave propagations and undesired frequency components, respectively. The 2D wave velocities in each direction were separately evaluated by a 2D local wave velocity algorithm. The experimental results demonstrated that the averaged 2D wave velocity represents a good agreement with the dispersion analysis via the ARF excitation. The proposed harmonic oscillation OCE with an easy-to-setup approach can be used to evaluate 2D mechanical properties of samples placed in the 6-well cell culture plate without tedious focusing alignment or directly contacting samples, which provides largely potential applications for histopathological and tissue engineering communities.
Tissue mechanics have been widely studied for the past two decades because they are significantly associated with disease states. The variations of mechanical properties in soft tissues are considerable indicators used for clinical diagnosis and disease monitoring. Optical coherence elastography (OCE) has been extensively developed to characterize the mechanical properties of various tissues. However, these methods are generally based on time-domain data and measure the time-offlight of the localized shear wave propagations. Here, we propose a method to evaluate phase velocity in four-dimensional (4D) space (x, y, z, f), called 4D-OCE phase velocity, and applied it to a heterogeneous phantom with a 4 mm diameter inclusion. A 7.5 MHz highly focused transducer transmitting a toneburst of 500 μs was used to provide an acoustic radiation force (ARF) for transient elastography. A customized 4D acquisition pattern was developed under Microsoft Visual C++ 2019 development environment. The 3D-OCE group velocity was reconstructed to compare with 4D-OCE phase velocity as cross-verification. The experimental result from the heterogeneous phantom showed that 4D-OCE phase velocity is capable of accurately reconstructing a 4D-OCE phase velocity map and provides good contrast between two gelatin materials with different concentrations, 7% versus 14%. The proposed 4D-OCE phase velocity can provide further information to better understand the delicate change of mechanical properties of various biological tissues in each voxel over a range of temporal frequencies.
Thromboembolism in the cerebrovasculature can cause high morbidity and mortality. Embolectomy is one of the emergency procedures performed to remove emboli; however, the approach such as aspiration or stent retriever are empirically selected. An inappropriate selection of approach can influence the success rate during embolectomy and affect levels of brain damage. Therefore, understanding the composition of clots and their mechanical properties can lead to an appropriate treatment strategy for physicians. In this study, we investigated how the composition of human clots can affect their mechanical properties as quantified using acoustic radiation force optical coherence elastography (ARF-OCE) in a non-contact manner. Five red blood cells (RBCs) concentrations were fabricated from fibrin rich (21% RBC) to RBC rich (95% RBC). A 7.5 MHz highly focused transducer was used to provide acoustic radiation force exerted on the surface of the clots and an optical coherence tomography system was used to measure the wave propagation. The study showed that the trend of the wave velocities decreased with the RBC concentration increased. The study demonstrated that ARF-OCE could be a promising tool to quantify the mechanical properties of clots to inform treatment strategy for clinical interventionalists.
An orthopaedic screw was designed with an optical tension-indicator to non-invasively quantify screw tension and monitor the load sharing between the bone and the implant. The screw both applies load to the bone, and measures this load by reporting the strain on the screw. The screw contains a colorimetric optical encoder that converts axial strain into colorimetric changes visible through the head of the screw, or luminescent spectral changes that are detected through tissue. Screws were tested under cyclic mechanical loading to mimic in-vivo conditions to verify the sensitivity, repeatability, and reproducibility of the sensor. In the absence to tissue, color was measured using a digital camera as a function of axial load on a stainless steel cannulated (hollow) orthopedic screw, modified by adding a passive colorimetric strain gauge through the central hole. The sensor was able to quantify clinically-relevant bone healing strains. The sensor exhibited good repeatability and reproducibility but also displayed hysteresis due to the internal mechanics of the screw. The strain indicator was also modified for measurement through tissue by replacing the reflective colorimetric sensor with a low-background X-ray excited optical luminescence signal. Luminescent spectra were acquired through 6 mm of chicken breast tissue. Overall, this research shows feasibility for a unique device which quantifies the strain on an orthopedic screw. Future research will involve reducing hysteresis by changing the mechanism of strain transduction in the screw, miniaturizing the luminescent strain gauge, monitoring bending as well as tension, using alternative luminescent spectral rulers based upon near infrared fluorescence or upconversion luminescence, and application to monitoring changes in pretension and load sharing during bone healing.
Vibro-acoustography is a speckle-free ultrasound based imaging modality that can visualize normal and abnormal soft
tissue through mapping stimulated acoustic emission. The acoustic emission is generated by focusing two ultrasound
beams of slightly different frequencies (Δf = f1-f2) to the same spatial location and vibrating the tissue as a result of
ultrasound radiation force. Reverberation of the acoustic emission can create dark and bright areas in the image that
affect overall image contrast and detectability of abnormal tissue. Using finite length tonebursts yields acoustic emission
at Δf and at sidebands centered about Δf that originate from the temporal toneburst gating. Separate images are formed by
bandpass filtering the acoustic emission at Δf and the associated sidebands. The data at these multiple frequencies are
compounded through coherent or incoherent processes to reduce the artifacts associated with reverberation of the acoustic emission. Experimental results from a urethane breast phantom and in vivo human breast scans are shown. The reduction in reverberation artifacts are analyzed using a smoothness metric which uses the variances of the gray levels of the original images and those formed through coherent and incoherent compounding of image data. This smoothness metric is minimized when the overall image background is smooth while image features are still preserved. The smoothness metric indicates that the images improved by factors from 1.23-4.33 and 1.09-2.68 in phantom and in vivo studies, respectively. The coherent and incoherent compounding of multifrequency data demonstrate, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the efficacy of this method for reduction of reverberation artifacts.
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