Visualize the tissue biomechanics: Acoustic Radiation Force Optical Coherence Elstography and it applications on clinical diagnosis of atherosclerosis -- Speaker: Wenjuan Qi

Many diseases involve changes in the biomechanical properties of tissue, and there exists a close correlation between tissue elasticity and pathology. In cardiology, particularly, knowledge of the mechanical properties provides valuable diagnostic information of coronary atherosclerosis. The development of a dynamic phase-resolved acoustic radiation force optical coherence elastography method (ARF-OCE) to evaluate the elastic properties of tissue will be presented.  This method utilizes chirped acoustic radiation force as high resolution “palpation” to produce remote excitation along the sample’s axial direction and uses phase-resolved optical coherence tomography (OCT) to measure the vibration of the sample. ARF-OCE technique could efficiently measure sample elastic properties in an accurate and quantitative manner. The ultimate goal of this research is to quantitatively characterize mechanical properties (Young’s modulus) of biological tissues.

Biography:

Wenjuan Qi received her bachelor’s degree in physics in Jilin University in 2008. She is now a Ph.D. candidate in materials science at University of California, Irvine, under the guidance of Professor Zhongping Chen. Her research interests involve the acoustic radiation force optical coherence elastographic imaging, optical Doppler tomography and its clinical applications.