Abstract #0635

Focused Acoustic Driver to Generate High-Frequency Shear Waves in Deep Regions for Magnetic Resonance Elastography

Mikio Suga^1,2, Takayuki Obata², Masashi Sekine³, Masaya Hirano⁴, Hisayuki Miura⁵, Ken Arai⁵, Shinya Ozawa⁵, Hiroo Ikehira²

¹Graduate School of Technology, Chiba University, Chiba , Japan; ²Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan; ³Research Center for Frontier Medical Engineering, Chiba University, Japan; ⁴GE Healthcare Japan, Tokyo, Japan; ⁵Graduate School of Technology, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) can noninvasively visualize shear waves patterns within tissue. To acquire an accurate shear modulus map in high spatial resolution in deep regions, external drivers must generate a precisely controlled high frequency and a large amplitude vibration. In this study, we develop a simple and robustly designed focused acoustic driver to enhance shear wave amplitude in deep regions by high frequency using a piezoelectric actuator. From the results of the experimental studies, it was shown that the focused acoustic driver increases the SNR of the shear wave image in the deep region and improves shear modulus quantitatively.