Development of acoustic diffraction-resistant adaptive profile technology (adapt) for improved shear wave elastography

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering awarded a Cooperative Agreement totaling $817,865 to Massachusetts General Hospital on September 1, 2026, under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286).

The award funds development of Acoustic Diffraction-Resistant Adaptive Profile Technology (ADAPT) to improve shear wave elastography, a non-invasive ultrasound technology for liver fibrosis staging and breast lesion imaging. Conventional shear-wave generation using focused ultrasonic push beams produces diffraction and amplitude loss with propagation distance, leading to unreliable measurements especially in obese patients. ADAPT combines wavenumber modulation and beam multiplexing to create extended arbitrary beam profiles in attenuating media through Bessel beam superposition. The research will refine ADAPT to produce ADAPT-SWE methods generating tailored push-beams with uniform acoustic pressure over extended depths, implement ADAPT-SWE on a GE LOGIQ E10 ultrasound scanner in collaboration with General Electric Healthcare, and conduct a clinical study in obese NAFLD subjects to translate ADAPT into clinical practice. The three specific aims include in silico refinement to produce a cylindrical shear wavefront with uniform axial push-beam profile over at least 3 centimeters, implementation and validation testing on a Verasonics research scanner using phantoms and ex-vivo tissue, and clinical translation efforts.

Performance occurs in Winter Hill, Massachusetts, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2031.

Abstract

Shear wave elastography (SWE) has become a widely used non-invasive ultrasound technology for liver fibrosis staging and breast lesion imaging. SWE comprises three parts: (1) shear-wave generation, (2) shear-wave tracking, and (3) shear-wave speed estimation. Shear-wave generation initiates the process and is a key determinant of measurement quality. Conventional shear-wave generation utilizes focused ultrasonic push beams that produces a near-spherical shear wavefront that is subject to diffraction and high amplitude loss with propagation distance, which can result in unreliable SWE measurements, especially in obese patients. We have developed a novel method, acoustic diffraction-resistant adaptive profile technology (adapt), that combines wavenumber modulation and beam multiplexing to enable a single transducer array to create extended arbitrary beam profiles in attenuating media through bessel beam superposition. The goals of the proposed research include (1) further developing and refining adapt to produce adapt-SWE, a set of methods that will produce tailored push-beams with uniform acoustic pressure over extended depths; (2) working in close collaboration with scientists from general electric healthcare (gehc), to implement adapt-SWE on a GE logiq E10 ultrasound scanner, and (3) performing a clinical study in obese nafld subjects, which will set the stage for the translation of adapt into clinical practice. We propose to accomplish this in three specific aims. Aim 1: adapt, refine, and characterize the adapt technique in silico to produce adapt-SWE, a method that will generate a cylindrical shear wavefront through creation of a uniform axial push-beam profile over a length of at least 3 CM. Aim 2: implement and test adapt-SWE code on a verasonics research scanner and validate adapt-SWE performance using phantoms and EX-vivo tissue, and aim 3: compare adapt-SWE and conventional liver SWE measurement failure rates and variability in a cohort of obese nafld subjects using a general electric logiq E10 (LE10) system. The expected outcomes include (1) adapt-SWE will improve SWE in obese nafld subjects, addressing a key unmet need in clinical practice; (2) additional knowledge and methods will be developed to facilitate the refinement and translation of adapt for other important clinical applications, such as improved b-mode and doppler imaging. The proposed adapt-SWE technology has the potential to have a transformative impact on the field of non-invasive liver fibrosis diagnosis in obese patients with nafld and to have numerous additional clinical applications.