TTP’s breakthrough could be used for surgical processes such as treating abnormal heart rhythms caused by atrial fibrillation, killing or removing cancerous or damaged tissue, or simply navigating around the body during an operation.? The company’s patent-pending approach uses a process of passive elastography, which relies on the body’s normal physiological distortions created for example by the beating of the heart, the respiration of the lungs, or the expansion and contraction of the blood vessels.
Using ultrasound frequencies between 5 and 40 MHz, TTP captures sets of two or three ultrasound images at a time and measures the displacement caused by the body’s natural movement – typically around 10 microns amplitude within each set of images. TTP then looks at the structural changes visible from the data to map muscle stiffness or muscle contraction and displays this as a color-map over the top of the ultrasound image. The result looks similar to a heat map with a resolution of around 0.5mm and up to a depth of around 50mm.
The strain imaging technology is designed for integration with existing ablation instruments or probes.
“When we started looking at ultrasound imaging for these surgical applications, it became clear that there is a need for a new imaging solution, which has enough contrast, resolution and image depth,” said Paul Galluzzo, of TTP. “For example, optical methods such as OCT and photo acoustics provide good contrast but inadequate imaging depth in this case, while electrical impedance spectroscopy does not produce an image and traditional ultrasound can’t always tell the difference between live and dead tissue during ablation. Our new passive elastography approach gives surgeons much greater visibility, which increases clinical efficacy.
“Ultimately the goal is to reduce the number of re-interventions, reduce mortality rates and accelerate procedure times for all ‘blind’ medical procedures,’” he continued.
For more information, visit TTP.
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