Elastographic imaging of thermally ablated tissue in vitro

Focused ultrasound surgery (FUS) is a promising therapeutic technique but progress is currently limited by the need for improved imaging methods to monitor the extent of tissue damage during and immediately after FUS exposure. Thermally ablated tissue are generally stiffer relative to surrounding undamaged tissues, which suggests that it should be possible to monitor FUS using any imaging technique, such as elastography, which is capable of visualising tissue elasticity. The aim of this paper is to report the results of a preliminary investigation conducted using ex-vivo bovine liver tissues, to explore the feasibility of monitoring FUS using ultrasonic elastographic imaging. The results demonstrated that spatial and contrast resolution of elastography should be sufficiently high for monitoring focused ultrasound surgery.