Ultrasonic measurement of microdisplacement induced by acoustic radiation force

Quantitative evaluation of human skin aging is achieved by measuring the viscoelasticity of the skin. In the present study, microdisplacement induced by acoustic radiation force (ARF) is quantitatively measured by high-frequency ultrasonography (HFUS) and the result is confirmed by laser-Doppler velocimetry (LDV). Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with 1% cellulose particles was used as the biological phantom. A concave piezoelectric zirconate titanate (PZT) transducer with a diameter and focal length of 3 cm was used as an applicator to generate ARF. Microdisplacement at each depth of PVA was measured by the phased tracking method at 100 MHz of ultrasound with a repetition rate of 2000 Hz. When 80 tone-burst pulses were applied, the displacement measured by HFUS was 9 m and the same result was obtained by LDV. As the displacement at each depth of PVA is measurable using ARF and the HFUS system, the system could be applied to measuring the viscoelasticity of the layered structure of the human skin.