Intracorporeal imaging and differentiation of living tissue with an ultra-high-frequency ultrasound probe

Ultrasound Med Biol. 2000 May;26(4):503-7. doi: 10.1016/s0301-5629(00)00147-2.

Abstract

Intraoperative diagnostic tissue differentiation is expected to be useful clinically. We have fabricated a 3-mm diameter rod-shaped ultrasound (US) probe mounted with a 120-MHz transducer whose lateral resolution is the same as the cellular size of 13 microm. The probe can image a microscopic structure (i.e., the cellular arrangement inside intracorporeal living tissue). We imaged normal kidney tissue of a living mouse and tumor tissue implanted in another mouse kidney. We anesthetized the mice, exteriorized the kidneys, and punctured the kidneys with the probe. Renal corpuscle-like structures were seen in the healthy kidney, but a wavy spindle-like structure was seen in the tumor. The similarity between the ultrasonic images and histological sections taken from the imaged organs demonstrates the possibility of real-time tissue differentiation by ultra-high-frequency US.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Carcinoma / diagnostic imaging*
  • Carcinoma / pathology
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Kidney / cytology
  • Kidney / diagnostic imaging*
  • Kidney Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Kidney Neoplasms / pathology
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Neoplasm Transplantation
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Ultrasonography