Development of an intravascular ultrasound elastography based on a dual-element transducer

The ability to measure the elastic properties of plaques and vessels would be useful in clinical diagnoses, particularly for detecting a vulnerable plaque. This study demonstrates the feasibility of combination of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and acoustic radiation force (ARF) elasticity imaging for detecting the distribution of stiffness within atherosclerotic arteries ex vivo. A dual-frequency IVUS transducer with two elements was used to induce the propagation of shear wave (by the 8.5-MHz pushing element) which could be simultaneously monitored by the 31-MHz imaging element. The wave-amplitude image and the wave-velocity image was reconstructed by measuring the peak displacement and wave velocity of shear wave propagation, respectively. System performance was verified using gelatin phantoms. The phantom results demonstrate that the stiffness differences of shear modulus of 1.6 kPa can be distinguished through the wave-amplitude and wave-velocity images. Moreover, the stiffness di...