Considering Angle Selection When Using Ultrasound Electrode Displacement Elastography to Evaluate Radiofrequency Ablation of Tissues

Abstract EN

Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive treatment to thermally destroy tumors.

Ultrasound-based electrode-displacement elastography is an emerging technique for evaluating the region of RFA-induced lesions.

The angle between the imaging probe and the RFA electrode can influence electrode-displacement elastography when visualizing the ablation zone.

We explored the angle effect on electrode-displacement elastography to measure the ablation zone.

Phantoms embedded with meatballs were fabricated and then ablated using an RFA system to simulate RFA-induced lesions.

For each phantom, a commercial ultrasound scanner with a 7.5 MHz linear probe was used to acquire raw image data at different angles, ranging from 30° to 90° at increments of 10°, to construct electrode-displacement images and facilitate comparisons with tissue section images.

The results revealed that the ablation regions detected using electrode-displacement elastography were highly correlated with those from tissue section images when the angle was between 30° and 60°.

However, the boundaries of lesions were difficult to distinguish, when the angle was larger than 60°.

The experimental findings suggest that angle selection should be considered to achieve reliable electrode-displacement elastography to describe ablation zones.