Tomokazu Numano1, Yoshihiko Kawabata2,
Toshikatsu Washio3, Kazuyuki Mizuhara4, Naotaka Nitta3,
Kazuhiro Homma3
1Radiological Science,
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Arakawa,, Tokyo, Japan; 2Takashima
Seisakusho Co.,Ltd., Hino, Tokyo, Japan; 3National Institute of
Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan;
4TOKYO DENKI UNIVERSITY, Tokyo, Japan
In this work we report on the development of a new technique for MRE vibrator based upon air ball-vibrator. It is compact vibrator that generated powerful centrifugal force vibration in the high-speed revolution of the internal-ball by compressed air. Vibration frequency and centrifugal force are freely changeable by operation of air flow volume, and replacement of internal ball. From performance test, even though the vibration frequency increase, the amount of displacement did not decrease. From agarose-gel phantom experiment, this vibrator can be used to make MR elastogram. This work shows that the use of ball-vibrator for MRE is feasible and can improve MRE image resolution by maintains adequate amount of displacement with high frequency vibrations.