Early detection of breast lesions with malignant potential plays an important role in patient prognosis and survival. While X-ray mammography is the current clinical standard for screening and detection, traditional techniques such as palpation in the physical exam still play an important diagnostic role, and additional alternative means are actively being sought for the identification of suspicious lesions. This work has been focused on the development of a novel method termed modality-independent elastography (MIE) for the purpose of quantitatively extracting the material properties of tissue. This is quite relevant in the context of breast cancer, as solid tumors are typically stiffer than the surrounding unremarkable normal tissue. MIE performs an iterative non-rigid, model-constrained image registration analysis of a tissue under differing states of mechanical loading to produce a spatial mapping of elastic modulus values, which can be then used to characterize and/or localize a lesion. Simulation and phantom experiments were performed for two- and three-dimensional systems with a variety of image data acquired from CT, MR, and digital photography. Additional work produced a clinically compatible proof-of-concept system that is suitable for undergoing further refinement in preparation for initial human trials. Preliminary results have been encouraging and hold promise for the use of MIE in detection and characterization of abnormal stiffness within the breast.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03272008-153047 |
| Date | 07 April 2008 |
| Creators | Ou, Jao Jih |
| Contributors | Benoit M. Dawant, Thomas E. Yankeelov, Robert L. Galloway, Jr, Michael I. Miga, Mark C. Kelley |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03272008-153047/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds