Assessment of compression-induced solid stress, fluid pressure and mechanopathological parameters in cancers in vivo using poroelastography

Abstract

Objective. Compression-induced solid stress (SSc) and fluid pressure (FPc) during ultrasound poroelastography (USPE) experiments are correlated with two markers of cancer growth and treatment effectiveness: growth-induced solid stress (SSg) and interstitial fluid pressure (IFP). The spatio-temporal distributions of SSg and IFP are determined by the transport properties of the vessels and interstitium in the tumor microenvironment. Approach. We propose a new USPE method for the non-invasive imaging of the local cancer mechanical parameters and dynamics of fluid flow. When performing poroelastography experiments, it may be difficult to implement a typical creep compression protocol, which requires to maintain a constant normally applied force. In this paper, we investigate the use of a stress relaxation protocol, which might be a more convenient choice for clinical poroelastography applications. Main results. Based on our finite element and ultrasound simulations study, we demonstrate that the SSc, FPc and their spatio-temporal distribution related parameters, interstitial permeability and vascular permeability, can be determined from stress relaxation experiments with errors below 10% as compared to the ground truth and accuracy similar to that of corresponding creep tests, respectively. We also demonstrate the feasibility of the new methodology for in vivo experiments using a small animal cancer model. Significance. The proposed non-invasive USPE imaging methods may become an effective tool to assess local tumor pressure and mechanopathological parameters in cancers.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 30, 2023
Source ID
10.1088/1361-6560/acdf39

Entities

People

  • Francesca Taraballi
  • Md Tauhidul Islam
  • Md. Hadiur Rahman Khan
  • Raffaella Righetti

Organizations

  • Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Mechanical Engineering/Mechanics of Materials.
  • Medical Imaging.