William O'Brien, Director of the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory at the Beckman Institute, is pushing ultrasound imaging methods in new directions, including the development of an innovative method for breast cancer screening.

O'Brien's research involves ultrasound-tissue interactions, including a major effort to understand and develop quantitative ultrasound imaging (QUS) approaches.

The work is dedicated to real world solutions as O'Brien and his collaborators seek to advance ultrasound technology for medical applications, including developing QUS technology as a reliable, fast, and inexpensive method that has advantages over conventional qualitative medical ultrasound for diagnosing disease. They write that QUS imaging relies heavily on signal processing techniques to extract information about underlying tissue microstructure and that to fully exploit its potential, digital signal processing methods are needed.

While working to improve the technique, O'Brien and his collaborators have already applied QUS to detect and diagnosis both malignant tumors and non-cancerous ones such as a mammary tumor called fibroadenoma, an important innovation for breast cancer screening.

O'Brien also applied the technique toward the detection of cervical ripening,  a disorder which leads to preterm births, the second leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. The technique gives doctors an imaging method that provides real-time information on cervical ripening, an advancement that could be a breakthrough in preventing preterm births.

In this video, O'Brien explains the advantages, such as real-time diagnostics, that QUS imaging technology offers over conventional, qualitative medical ultrasound techniques, describes the method's ability to differentiate tumors, and talks about other applications of this approach.

©2008 Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign