Quantitative diagnostics of soft tissue through viscoelastic characterization using time-based instrumented palpation

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Diagnostics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Traditional palpation for soft tissue assessment is subjective and relies heavily on practitioner experience.
• Existing methods often fail to capture the complex viscoelastic changes in soft tissues during pathological conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate dynamic mechanical palpation for quantifying changes in soft tissue viscoelastic properties.
• To develop a diagnostic framework for simultaneous measurement of elastic and viscous behaviors.

Main Methods:

• A novel diagnostic framework utilizing a reduced set of viscoelastic parameters was developed.
• Dynamic mechanical palpation was employed to measure elastic and viscous responses.
• The method was validated using prostate models derived from MRI scans.

Main Results:

• The study demonstrated that the viscoelastic time constant effectively differentiates between healthy and cancerous prostate tissue.
• A reliable index for quantitative assessment of tissue quality was established.
• The proposed method proved effective even for tissues with complex viscoelastic behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Dynamic mechanical palpation provides a quantitative and reliable method for assessing soft tissue quality.
• The developed framework offers a promising tool for clinical diagnostics, particularly for identifying pathological changes.
• This approach transcends specific tissue types, offering broad applicability in medical diagnostics.