Non-invasive Myocardial Shear Wave Elastography Device for Clinical Applications in Cardiology

BackgroundUltrasound Shear Wave Elastography has been widely used in clinical practice to access tissues' stiffness non-invasively. However, the application of this technique to access myocardial stiffness clinically and non-invasively was yet not demonstrated. In this study, we introduce a new prototype for clinical application purposes, the Myocardial Shear Wave Elastography imaging (MSWEi) device.MethodsThe MSWEi device lays on a linear phased-array probe (2.75-MHz, Vermon S.A., Tours, France) connected to an ultrafast ultrasound scanner (Aixplorer, Supersonic Imagine, Aix-en-Provence, France), a dedicated sequence of Shear Wave Elastography and unfocused emissions at very high frame rate for myocardial stiffness evaluation, and a dedicated graphical user interface for physicians use in clinical settings.ResultsThis prototype was evaluated and validated in-vitro using calibrated mimicking tissue phantoms, providing accurate and robust measurements for tissues' stiffness up to 25 kPa. The device was also validated for stiffness estimation on different thin layers for thickness superior to 5-mm, showing a bias estimation inferior to 15%. Finally, the in-vivo and non-invasive application of the prototype was also evaluated on a patient.ConclusionThis study presented a new device to evaluate non-invasively myocardial stiffness using an ultrafast ultrasound scanner in a clinical setting. The in-vivo, non-invasive and clinical feasibility was demonstrated showing the potential of the device to evaluate myocardial stiffness accurately up to 25 KPa and for myocardial wall thickness superior to 5-mm.