NU 2012-012

Inventors

Teresa Woodruff*

Timothy Carroll*

Mayank Vijayvergia

Gaurav Gadodia

Sumeeth Jonathan

Frank Miller

Samantha By

Abstract

Northwestern inventors have developed a novel device to be used in combination with magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in order to detect the stiffness of smaller and deeper organs more accurately. Current MRE technologies using the round/flat driver have a limited ability to evaluate tissue stiffness due to the depth of some organs. This novel passive driver device exhibits stronger penetration of shear waves which converge with longitudinal waves, diminishing the blind zone and significantly improving the imaging capabilities. This is particularly true for the improved diagnosis of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, for which the MRE system was originally designed. The applications for this improvement, however, can also be extended to other organs including the ovaries and pancreas, for which the ability to detect stiffness enables the diagnosis of cancer, which is a challenging task due to risks associated with deep tissue biopsies and difficulty of imaging these tissues.

Applications

• Evaluation of tissue stiffness related conditions such as liver disease (fibrosis and cirrhosis) and pancreatitis
• Cancer diagnosis in deeper organs

Advantages

• Improved imaging of deeper tissue and smaller organs