Transthoracic shear wave ultrasound: a noninvasive tool to differentiate between benign and malignant subpleural lung lesions

Ultrasound is a well-established imaging modality that uses high frequency sound waves. The technique relies on acoustic physical characteristics like reflection, compression, rarefication and impedance to visualise and characterise different tissue types within the human body. This information may be additional, or even unique, when compared with other imaging modalities, such as projection radiography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Ultrasound has many advantages: it does not use ionising X-rays, is readily available, is less expensive than CT and MRI, and gives information in real-time. Unfortunately, the technique is difficult to conduct and therefore operator dependent, has a set of artefacts that can reduce image quality, has a minimal but potential risk of thermal heating or mechanical injury to tissue at a microscopic level, especially when high frequencies of ultrasound waves are used, and cannot evaluate the internal structure of tissues with high acoustical impedance (e.g. air and bone).
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research