Bioacoustics response of small benign or malignant nodules

• Published in: 2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Vol. 2011; pp. 7695 - 7698
• Main Authors: Gavriloaia, G. V., Gavriloaia, Mariuca-Roxana G., Novac, M. L.
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Acoustics; Cancer; Ellipsoids; Harmonic analysis; Humans; Rough surfaces; Shape; Spectrum Analysis; Surface roughness; Thyroid Neoplasms - diagnosis; Thyroid Neoplasms - pathology
• DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091896
• ISBN: 9781424441211; 1424441218
• ISSN: 1094-687X; 1557-170X

One of the most important features of separation between benign or malignant tissues is their smooth or rough shape. This article presents a new method for early diagnosis of thyroid cancer by knowing the resonance frequencies of a certain tissue. Two types of nodules were investigated: spherical and elliptical. Their external surfaces were smooth or rough with different values of spicules. Propagation of sound through the human body was modeled by a classical partial differential equation associated with Neumann or Dirichlet boundary conditions. The assessments of about ten acoustic eigenfrequencies are enough to decide the type of external surfaces: smooth or rough, or whether nodule is benign or malignant. Data obtained by this method refers to the result of investigating 3D bodies smaller than 5 mm, when other medical devices such as ultrasound or CT cannot evaluate their surface shape because of their limited spatial resolution.