Because of the increase of the obesity related diseases, it is desirable to be able to detect a fatty liver and quantify the content in fat for the fatty liver. Known methods are biopsy and magnetic resonance imaging. However, biopsy is an invasive method and magnetic resonance imaging is a complicated method to carry out. The inventors propose a new ultrasonic method, which is more compliant with a regular control of the content in fat for the fatty liver for a subject. This method notably relies on a smart exploitation of the coherence properties of ultrasound pulses applied to the liver. This method has already been validated on sane subjects as providing accurate measurements, notably for fat content.

Because of the increase of the obesity related diseases, it is desirable to be able to detect a fatty liver and quantify the content in fat for the fatty liver. Known methods are biopsy and magnetic resonance imaging. However, biopsy is an invasive method and magnetic resonance imaging is a complicated method to carry out. The inventors propose a new ultrasonic method which is more compliant with a regular control of the content in fat for the fatty liver for a subject. This method notably relies on a smart exploitation of the coherence properties of ultrasound pulses applied to the liver. This method has already been validated on sane subjects as providing accurate measurements, notably for fat content.

An acoustic-wave measuring device includes: a support table having a support surface configured to support an examination subject, and an opening portion provided in the support surface to measure a predetermined examination site of the examination subject; a container located vertically below the support surface and capable of containing an acoustic matching material in a liquid or gel form; and a receiving element located vertically below the support surface and configured to receive an acoustic wave generated from the examination site, wherein a matching-material bag containing an acoustic matching material in a liquid or gel form or a matching gel having limited flowability and an acoustic control effect, and a placement unit for placement of the matching-material bag or the matching gel thereon are installable between the acoustic matching material contained in the container and the examination site.

System and method for shear wave elasticity imaging perform a) acquiring B-mode ultrasound images of a target region; b) selecting a region of interest; c) transmitting a shear wave excitation pulse; d) measuring displacements of tracking focal points or depth ranges at different depths positions along each of laterally staggered tracking lines within the selected region of interest; e) determining a curve representing displacement of tissue as a function of time at different spatial locations within the region of interest; f) determining for spatial locations candidate time(s) of arrival of the shear wave at the spatial location as a function of the curve; g) finding linear functional relation between the time of arrival and the spatial coordinate in the lateral direction using Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm; and h) determining the inverse of velocity of the shear wave in a spatial location as the angular coefficient of the linear function.

A single-impulse panoramic photoacoustic computed tomography (SIP-PACT) system for small-animal whole-body imaging is disclosed. In addition, a dual-speed of sound image universal back-projection reconstruction method is disclosed. Further, a PACT system for imaging a breast of a subject is disclosed.

Methods, systems and computer program products for determining a property for a sample having a target region using ultrasound data from an ultrasound scanner include generating at least one spatial coherence curve based on ultrasound backscatter data in the target region, the spatial coherence curve comprising coherence values as a function of depth in the sample; and determining a property for a sample in response to the spatial coherence curve as a function of depth.

A method and system are described for processing tissues according to particular processing protocols that are established based on time-of-flight measurements as a processing fluid is diffused into a tissue sample. In one embodiment, measurement of the time it takes about 70% ethanol to diffuse into a tissue sample is used to predict the time it will take to diffuse other processing fluids into the same or similar tissue samples. Advantageously, the disclosed method and system can reduce overall processing times and help ensure that only samples that require similar processing conditions are batched together.

In some examples, a distributed acoustic detector system may include a frame structure and multiple acoustic detectors. The frame structure may be configured to be retained in a laser-based ophthalmo-logical surgical system aligned to an eye of a patient during therapeutic treatment of the eye of the patient with the laser-based ophthalmological surgical system. The acoustic detectors may be coupled to the frame structure and may be spaced apart from each other and electrically separated from each other.

A method and system of predicting a muscle characteristic using ultrasound. The characteristic may include a tenderness characteristic and/or a strength characteristic. An analysis of muscle structure is performed for a sample using ultrasound data of the sample. The analysis may include determining a relative number of bundles, fascicles, sarcomeres, fibers, and/or sheath thickness from the ultrasound data. Thereafter, the muscle characteristic is predicted for the sample based on the analysis.

Systems and methods for integrating a three-dimensional X-ray computed tomography system with an independent sound wave system to determine mechanical properties of tissue using signals from the sound wave system. Methods are disclosed that generate a numerical simulation and take the transmitted wave signals as the optimization objective to estimate modulus distribution of the tissue. Further, the mechanical properties of the tissue are reconstructed based on an inverse algorithm.