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Prostate tissue stiffness as measured with a resonance sensor system: a study on silicone and human prostate tissue in vitro

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Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men in Europe and in the USA. Some prostate tumours are stiffer than the surrounding normal tissue, and it could therefore be of interest to measure prostate tissue stiffness. Resonance sensor technology based on piezoelectric resonance detects variations in tissue stiffness due to a change in the resonance frequency. An impression-controlled resonance sensor system was used to detect stiffness in silicone rubber and in human prostate tissue in vitro using two parameters, both combinations of frequency change and force. Variations in silicone rubber stiffness due to the mixing ratio of the two components could be detected (p<0.05) using both parameters. Measurements on prostate tissue showed that there existed a statistically significant (MANOVA test, p<0.001) reproducible difference between tumour tissue (n=13) and normal healthy tissue (n=98) when studying a multivariate parameter set. Both the tumour tissue and normal tissue groups had variations within them, which were assumed to be related to differences in tissue composition. Other sources of error could be uneven surfaces and different levels of dehydration for the prostates. Our results indicated that the resonance sensor could be used to detect stiffness variations in silicone and in human prostate tissue in vitro. This is promising for the development of a future diagnostic tool for prostate cancer.

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Abbreviations

PZT:

Lead zirconate titanate

Δf :

Measured frequency change

F :

Measured force

d :

Impression depth

F d :

Force at a specific impression depth d

Δf F :

Frequency change at a specific force F

∂Δf/∂F :

Derivative of Δf with respect to F

SD:

Standard deviation

CV:

Coefficient of variation

THP:

Tumour hit percentage

d 2 j :

Generalized distances in multivariate space

q c,p :

Quantiles of the chi-square distribution with p degrees of freedom

n N :

Number of measurements on normal healthy tissue

n T :

Number of measurements on tumour tissue

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by grants from the Objective 1 Norra Norrland—EU Structural Fund and from the Swedish Cancer Society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Ville Jalkanen, Britt M. Andersson & Olof A. Lindahl

  2. Department of Medical Biosciences, Pathology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Anders Bergh

  3. Department of Surgical and Perioperative Science, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Börje Ljungberg

  4. Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Ville Jalkanen, Britt M. Andersson & Olof A. Lindahl

Authors
  1. Ville Jalkanen
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  2. Britt M. Andersson
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  3. Anders Bergh
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  4. Börje Ljungberg
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  5. Olof A. Lindahl
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Correspondence to Ville Jalkanen.

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Jalkanen, V., Andersson, B.M., Bergh, A. et al. Prostate tissue stiffness as measured with a resonance sensor system: a study on silicone and human prostate tissue in vitro. Med Bio Eng Comput 44, 593–603 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-006-0069-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-006-0069-6

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