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Background: Placental elasticity may be modified in women with placental insufficiency. Shear wave elastography (SWE) can measure this, using acoustic radiation force, but the safety of its use in pregnant women has not yet been demonstrated. Transient elastography (TE) is a safer alternative, but has not yet been applied to the placenta. Moreover, the dispersion of shear wave speed (SWS) as a function of frequency has received relatively little study for placental tissue, although it might improve the accuracy of biomechanical assessment., Objective: To explore the feasibility and reproducibility of TE for placental analysis, to compare the values of SWS and Young's modulus (YM) from TE and SWE, and to analyze SWS dispersion as a function of frequency ex vivo in normal placentas., Materials and Methods: Ten normal placentas were analyzed ex vivo by an Aixplorer ultrasound system as shear waves were generated by a vibrating plate and by using an Aixplorer system. The frequency analysis provided the value of the exponent n from a fractional rheological model applied to the TE method. We calculated intra- and interobserver agreement for SWS and YM with 95% prediction intervals, created Bland-Altman plots with 95% limits of agreement, and estimated the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)., Main Results: The mean SWS was 1.80 m/s +/- 0.28 (standard deviation) with the TE method at 50 Hz and 1.82 m/s +/-0.13 with SWE (P = 0.912). No differences were observed between the central and peripheral regions of placentas with either TE or SWE. With TE, the intraobserver ICC for SWS was 0.68 (0.50-0.82), and the interobserver ICC for SWS 0.65 (0.37-0.85). The mean parameter n obtained from the fractional rheological model was 1.21 +/- 0.12, with variable values of n for any given SWS., Conclusions: TE is feasible and reproducible on placentas ex vivo. The frequency analysis of SWS provides additional information about placental elasticity and appears to be able to distinguish differences between placental structures.

For various applications, precision of the Young’s modulus of cancellous bone specimens is needed. However, measurement variability is rarely given. The aim of this study was to assess the Young’s modulus repeatability using a uniaxial cyclic compression protocol on embedded specimens of human cancellous bone. Twelve specimens from 12 human calcanei were considered. The specimens were first defatted and then 1 or 2 mm at the ends were embedded in an epoxy resin. The compression experiment consists in applying 20 compressive cycles between 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent strain with a 2 Hz loading frequency. The coefficient of variation of the current protocol was found to be 1.2 per cent. This protocol showed variability similar to the end-cap technique (considered as a reference). It can be applied on porous specimen (especially human bone) and requires minimal bone length to limit end-artifact variability. The current method could be applied in association with noninvasive measurements (such as ultrasound) with full compatibility. This possibility opens the way for bone damage follow-up based on Young’s modulus monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vibro-acoustography imaging method consists of forming an image of the deformability of a tissue submitted to a low frequency fLF stress field. This sound field can be created locally by means of a focused annular array emitting two primary beams driven at two close frequencies fa and fb=fa+fLF. In the existing literature, the origin of this stress field has been identified as the low frequency radiation pressure of the two primary beams. However, this work intends to show that another contribution to this internal stress is the low frequency field distributed in the object volume and created by the nonlinear interferences of the two primary beams. This nonlinear field was calculated in the case of multiple ring annular arrays and compared with the qLF beam experimentally measured in a water tank. The agreement between the theoretical and experimental curves provides information on the possibility that this nonlinear effect takes place in vibro-acoustography. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It is now accepted that an effective way to investigate the elastic properties of soft tissues is to generate a localized transient acoustic radiation force and to follow the associated displacements in the time/space domain. Shear waves induced by this stress field are particularly interesting in this kind of medium because they are governed by the shear elastic modulus μ, which is directly linked to the Young modulus, and spatial distribution and temporal evolution of the transient motion induced must therefore be obtained in detail. We report here a model based on the elastodynamic Green’s function formalism to describe these displacements. 3D simulation of radiation force in homogenous elastic media was performed and the displacement curves computed at different radial distances for different temporal force profiles. Amplitude and duration of displacement were found to be reliable parameters to characterize the elastic properties of the medium. Experimental measurements were performed in a homogeneous agar-gelatin tissue-mimicking phantom, and two transducers were used to generate the radiation force and follow the induced displacements. Displacements obtained from different lateral locations around the applied force axis were then used to reconstruct the shear-wave propagation in a scan plane as a function of time. The experimental displacements/curves agreed with the theoretical profiles obtained by the elastodynamic Green’s function formalism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In non-destructive evaluation, non-linear elastic wave spectroscopy (NEWS) methods represent powerful tools to explore damaged zones in a sample. The combination of these methods with time reversal (TR) process can be used to either increase the stress on the retrofocusing position or to retrofocuse elastic waves on the defect, when only the non-linear components of the received signal are time reversed. In this paper, we propose two different approaches to detect cracks in metallic samples in coupling NEWS methods and TR process. The first one, NEWS-TR, is defined by sending back only the non-linear components which are preliminary time reversed. Two different techniques to filter non-linear components have been numerically studied: classical harmonic filter and pulse inversion. In these two cases, performances of retrofocusing on different defect positions are analyzed and compared. The second approach, TR-NEWS, consists in measuring the non-linear signature on the focal spot. An experimental study of parametric interaction between two reversed signals ( and ) is led. Measurements of components at and around a crack are performed and discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]