Boerhaave lecture: ‘A new era in Biomedical Ultrasound’

The last twenty years have seen a true scientific revolution in the field of biomedical ultrasound thanks to the introduction of new physics concepts and emerging technologies. In the live streamed Boerhaave lecture, Professor Micheal Tanter - a world-renowned expert in biomedical ultrasound and wave physics – explored how these advances beyond conventional ultrasound translate into more than technological leaps, and have enabled the advent of new imaging modes for both screening and diagnostics.

Novel concepts and technologies

Thanks to the introduction of novel physics concepts and emerging technologies, the three fundamental parameters of this widely democratized clinical imaging modality are broken by several orders of magnitude. First, the introduction of ultrafast ultrasonic plane wave transmissions increased the temporal resolution of ultrasound from 50 frames per second to more than 10 000 frames per second. Second, the introduction of Ultrafast Doppler imaging led to a 50-fold increase in the ultrasonic sensitivity to blood flow. Third, the invention of ultrasound localization microscopy led to a 50-fold increase in the spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging.

Screening and diagnostic opportunities

With ultrafast imaging, it became possible to track the transient propagation of shear waves within organs and reconstruct quantitative maps of the organ stiffness. Such Shear Wave Elastography strongly improves the diagnostic capabilities of ultrasound for cancer diagnosis, fibrosis staging or the study of cardiovascular pathologies. With Ultrafast Doppler imaging, it became possible to detect smaller vessels and perform for the first time neurofunctional imaging of the brain activity using ultrasonic waves. Functional Ultrasound (fUS imaging) is fast becoming a full-fledged neuroimaging modality. Finally, by combining ultrafast imaging and the intravenous injection of gas microbubbles, it became possible to non-invasively map whole organ vasculature and quantify hemodynamics up to the microscopic resolution and the capillary bed.

Gaining further insights

In this way, techniques such as the ultrasound localization microscopy solve for the first time the problem of in vivo non-invasive imaging at microscopic scale deep into organs. Beyond fundamental neuroscience or stroke diagnosis, it will certainly provide new insights in the understanding of tumor angiogenesis.