Ultrasonic elasticity measurement of Achilles tendon of rabbit

• Main Authors: Kuo, Po Lin, 郭柏齡
• Other Authors: P.C.-Li
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1998
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/33712692243963947192

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 電機工程學系研究所 === 86 === The primary function of tendon is to propagate muscle tension and to store energy in an elastic form. In order to maintain its function, sufficient strength and stiffness are required. The strength and stiffness of tendon, however, tend to degrade with injury or inflammation. It is the purpose of rehabilitation to restore its mechanical properties such that tendon can return to its normal function. Recently, ultrasonic elasticity imaging has become popular as a non-invasive way to investigate the mechanical properties of biological tissue. Different from conventional B-mode imaging, contrast of elasticity imaging is resulted from differences of the elastic modulus between tissues. In theory, ultrasonic elasticity imaging has the potential to provide significant improvement in tissue characterization against conventional B-mode sonogram. In this thesis, protocols for measuring the elasticity difference between the normal tendon and the ischemic tendon at early inflammation stage by ultrasound were established. In addition, the change of composition inside the inflammatory tendon was evaluated by measuring elasticity distribution. Dissected normal and ischemic Achilles tendon of rabbit were prepared in the agar hydro-gel-based phantom, and a 5MHz ultrasonic transducer was used to measure the deformation of tendon thickness under external pressure. The elasticity of rabbit's tendon on the transverse plane and the internal elasticity distribution were obtained by analyzing the A-scan data using a correlation-based algorithm. Results showed that the differences of elasticity measured by ultrasound between the normal and the ischemic tendon were significant. In addition, assuming noise is sufficiently low, the composition change of the ischemic tendon can be effectively monitored by measuring the elasticity distribution using a speckle-tracking algorithm. Therefore, it is believed that reconstruction of the internal elasticity distribution of tendon has the potential of being an effective tool for rehabilitation treatment follow-up in clinics.