Portal vein pressure measurement using elastography

1. A method for measuring portal venous blood pressure in a subject, the method comprising the steps of:

a) applying a mechanical excitation to spleen of the subject;

b) acquiring displacement data relating to tissue displacement in the spleen in response to this applied force with a medical imaging system;

c) calculating a splenic shear stiffness value from the acquired displacement data;

d) developing a mathematic model between splenic shear stiffness and portal venous blood pressure; and

e) calculating the portal venous blood pressure using the calculated splenic shear stiffness value and the mathematic model between splenic shear stiffness and portal venous blood pressure.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying the mechanical excitation to the spleen with an active or passive acoustic driver.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying mechanical excitation to the spleen with an electromechanical driver.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying mechanical excitation to the spleen with a piezoelectric driver.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying mechanical excitation to the spleen with focused ultrasound.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying one of a harmonic and a combination of harmonic mechanical excitations to the spleen.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying transient mechanical excitation to the spleen.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying one of static and quasi-static mechanical excitation to the spleen.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step b) includes performing an ultrasound imaging process to acquire the displacement data from the spleen.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step b) includes performing a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging process to acquire the displacement data from the spleen.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 wherein step b) includes performing phase contrast magnetic resonance techniques to encode the displacement in the subject's spleen as changes in the phase of an MR signal.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein step b) includes performing a gradient recalled echo pulse sequence to acquire the displacement data from the spleen.

13. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein step b) includes performing a spin echo pulse sequence to acquire the displacement data from the spleen.

14. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein step b) includes performing an echo planar imaging pulse sequence to acquire the displacement data from the spleen.

15. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein step b) includes performing a steady state free precession pulse sequence to acquire the displacement data from the spleen.

16. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein step b) includes acquiring data in at least one 2D imaging slice.

17. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein step b) includes acquiring data in a 3D imaging volume.

18. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying at least one of a harmonic, a combination of harmonics, and transient mechanical excitation to the spleen

and wherein step c) includes estimating the shear stiffness of the spleen based on inversions of the equations of acoustic wave propagation in materials.

19. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein step a) further includes applying at least one of a harmonic, a combination of harmonics, and transient mechanical excitation to the spleen and wherein step c) includes estimating the shear stiffness of the spleen based on an estimation of one of the shear wave speed and wavelength.

20. A method for measuring portal venous blood pressure in a subject, the method comprising the steps of:

a) applying a mechanical excitation to spleen of the subject;

b) acquiring displacement data relating to tissue displacement in the spleen in response to this applied force with a medical imaging system;

c) calculating a splenic shear stiffness value from the acquired displacement data;

d) developing a mathematic model between splenic shear stiffness and portal venous blood pressure;

e) calculating the portal venous blood pressure using the calculated splenic shear stiffness value and the mathematic model between splenic shear stiffness and portal venous blood pressure; and

wherein step e) further includes converting the measured shear stiffness of the spleen to an estimate of portal venous blood pressure based on a model that assumes that splenic stiffness changes with portal vein pressure as an ideal fluid, that the Poisson ratio of the splenic material remains constant, and that the spleen behaves uniformly across patients.

21. A method for measuring portal venous blood pressure in a subject, the method comprising the steps of:

a) applying a mechanical excitation to spleen of the subject;

b) acquiring displacement data relating to tissue displacement in the spleen in response to this applied force with a medical imaging system;

c) calculating a splenic shear stiffness value from the acquired displacement data;

d) developing a mathematic model between splenic shear stiffness and portal venous blood pressure;

e) calculating the portal venous blood pressure using the calculated splenic shear stiffness value and the mathematic model between splenic shear stiffness and portal venous blood pressure; and

wherein step e) further includes converting the measured shear stiffness of the spleen to an estimate of portal venous blood pressure based on a model that takes into account the poroelastic behavior of the spleen.

22. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the mathematic model is

P

⁡

(

μ

)

=

P

0

⁢

μ

μ

0

,

wherein P(μ) is the postal venous blood pressure, μ is the splenic shear modulus, μ 0 is the base-line calibration measurement for splenic shear modulus and P 0 is the base-line calibration measurement for postal venous blood pressure.