fig1 and 9 reference a cross - sectional view of a mechanically driven needle biopsy device and associated needle system . fig2 , is a perspective view of a drum needle driver embodiment , in accordance with the present invention , which can be used as a mechanical stimulus in mre for producing a plane wave , as opposed to a spherical wave as is produced by a surface driver . the drum driver is formed from any polymer which is safe to use within an mri machine , e . g . polycarbonate , high density polyethylene , polypropylene , ethylene - propylene copolymer , nylon , and the like . the drum needle driver includes a housing 20 , which has an inlet end 22 for influx of a pulsatile flow of gas , e . g . air , nitrogen or the like , or the energy output supplied by an alternative wave generation means , e . g . a speaker ( not shown ) which impacts upon diaphragm 24 , and causes a rhythmic undulation of the diaphragm 24 , and a concomitant movement of the biopsy needle 26 , which is in removable mechanical engagement with the diaphragm via a coupling member 28 , at a frequency determined by the pulsatile frequency of the gaseous flow . the resulting mre is able to yield a higher degree of accuracy in measurement of small tumors , e . g . 100 microns , by virtue of the enhanced specificity and sensitivity visible in the elastographic imaging resulting from the needle generated plane waves . a comparison of the imaging produced by the surface driver versus needle driver is shown in fig5 - 8 for a phantom , rat , rabbit and human , respectively . fig3 shows alternative cross - sectional views of the needle drum driver device of fig2 , which more specifically illustrate the diaphragm 24 , housing 20 , inlet for source of wave generator 22 , and needle element holder 28 . as earlier alluded to , this technique can be employed for needle - guided biopsy in patients with breast , liver , kidney , brain and prostate tumors . in a preferred , albeit non - limiting embodiment , a needle driver constructed and arranged for use within an mri machine , and particularly constructed and arranged for performing needle - guided mre biopsy is illustrated in fig2 and 3 . a set of needles is provided ( see fig1 ) which are interchangeable , and may be selected as needed , specific to the particular tissue biopsy being performed . the needle driver produces plane acoustic waves orthogonal to the needle . in one embodiment , if desirable , an additional surface driver ( see fig4 ), may be added to produce waves normal to the point of contact and parallel to the needle . both devices are suitable for mre imaging , without production of unwanted artifacts , and the needle has an additional utility in that it can be used for biopsy . fig4 shows a patient positioned within an mri device ( mri device not shown ) in an experimental setup for breast cancer mre using a surface driver 42 , wherein the pulsatile frequency of the drum driver ( e . g . acoustic or pneumatic , or the like ) is transmitted to the surface of the body , in this case the breast 40 , to enhance the mre image . insertion of a needle drum driver , as illustrated in fig2 , is practiced wherein the needle is positioned parallel to the surface driver , to produce a sensitive imaging platform , absent artifacts , as described above . the prior version of the invention provided a biopsy needle driver as shown in fig1 and 9 . it consists of a piezoelectric bending element 3 for the vibration of the contact plate 6 and the needle 5 . the surface ( cross section at aa ′) 8 a of the contact plate will attach to the skin of the subject for the surface vibration . the piezoelectric bending element 3 is held by the holder 1 and connects to power supply 2 . a fixation 4 is attached to the center of the piezoelectric bending element for holding the biopsy needle 5 . a contact plate 6 for giving the vibration at the surface of skin is fixed to the fixation 4 by nylon screw 7 . fig9 also shows the cross section of the contact plate 9 a at aa ′ from the top view . fig1 shows a liver / kidney / prostate fixture 10 and a breast fixture 12 . the patient lays supine for liver and prostate biopsy and lays prone for kidney and breast biopsies . two knobs at each side of the liver / kidney / prostate fixture are used for adjusting the height of the fixture . the liver / kidney / prostate fixture is fixed to the table of mri scanner 10 a . twenty holes 10 b on the cross section from the bb ′ views are designated for the different locations of the liver / kidney / prostate in individuals . an inclined plane 11 for holding the needle driver can be put on the each side of the breasts according to the location of the lesion . the inclination angle of the inclined plane can be adjusted to fit in with the angle of biopsy needles . fig1 shows a set of sample biopsy needles including an outer hollow needle 14 and inner needle 13 . the handle 16 of the inner needle is attached to the proximal end 17 of the outer hollow needle to form the biopsy needle 15 . an inner needle 13 is slid to engage within the lumen of outer hollow needle 14 . there are 20 kinds of biopsy needle available with different inner diameters ( 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 and 20 gauge ) and different lengths ( 10 , 13 16 and 20 cm ). fig1 shows an electro - mechanically driven acupuncture or biopsy needle . using this technique , or the acoustically , pneumatically or piezoelectrically driven embodiments outlined herein , induced waves by a moving needle can be generated , thereby simulating the up and down movement of physical acupuncture treatment . one could then evaluate the induced waves of simulated acupuncture via mre , to thereby study , in vivo , the efficacy of various acupuncture techniques . comparison of the brain stiffness among normal subject , mci patient and ad patient using magnetic resonance elastography with twin drivers using the 3t ge mri systems in beijing neurosurgical institute . to develop a new technique based on the state - of - the - art in magnetic resonance elastography ( mre ) for early detection and diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment ( mci ) and alzheimer &# 39 ; s disease and for establishing a standard range of brain viscosity and elasticity in normal subjects , mci patients and ad patients . as illustrated in fig1 c , 13 b and 13 a respectively , mre brain images of 4 normal subjects , 2 mci ( mild cognitive impairment ) and 5 ad ( alzheimer &# 39 ; s dementia ) patients were obtained using a ge 3 t mri scanner . a commercial brain coil was used in the 3t ge mri systems in beijing neurosurgical institute . mechanical oscillation was produced by a homebuilt transducer . typical excitation frequency for in vivo measurements was 40 hz . the pulse generator was triggered via the standard trigger output channel of the spectrometer . the different components of the mechanical wave were measured using the modified spin - echo pulse sequence developed by mayo clinic . mreview developed in mayo clinic was used for data acquisition and reconstruction . more specifically , it is generally only necessary to utilize a single pneumatic driver . however , when illuminating a large organ , such as the brain , the shear wave generated by one pneumatic driver is insufficient to illuminate the whole area due to wave attenuation . in order to compensate for the wave attenuation , we have found it useful to use twin pneumatic drivers . we have determined that the use of twin pneumatic drivers can compensate for the shear wave attenuation propagated when illuminating a human brain with a single pneumatic driver . in practice , a speaker drives air which propagates in an attached tube connected to the driver . the membrane of the driver is placed on the skull and vibrates to generate a shear wave propagating in the brain . the drum - like driver and tubes are made of plastic and are safe for use in the mri device . we place two pneumatic drivers symmetrically on the both sides of the skull . the two pneumatic drivers are driven synchronously by the same source . when comparing the wave pattern images at a particular frequency , e . g . 100 hz excitations , generated by a single pneumatic driver and twin pneumatic drivers respectively , we have observed that the shear wave generated by single pneumatic driver exhibits unacceptable attenuation . in both cases , the pneumatic drivers are driven at the same frequency and same power . the twin pneumatic drivers generate an interference wave pattern which can compensate the attenuation effectually . a stiffness value is generated from these data ( see for example fig1 ). compared with normal subjects ( fig1 c ), the brain stiffness of both white matter and grey matter is lower in mci patients ( fig1 b ). also the brain stiffness is lower in ad patients ( fig1 a ) than in mci patients ( fig1 and 14 ). the technique is potentially valuable for early detection and diagnosis of mci and alzheimer &# 39 ; s disease . in addition , the technique provide a pathway for understanding the pathology of the disease , monitoring disease progression and testing the effects of drug treatment . the data demonstrates that the mre technique is highly valuable for early detection and diagnosis of alzheimer &# 39 ; s disease and for understanding its pathology , monitoring disease progression and effectiveness of drug treatment . also , it may provide greater hope for mci patients for the prevention of the development of ad , since , at a very early stage , mci is reversible or can be slowed pharmacologically , wherein there is currently no effective pharmacological intervention for ad . mre is a phase contrast imaging technique to quantitatively measure the elasticity of tissues . typically , an oscillating driver is placed on the surface to generate the shear waves . in measuring depth penetration of the shear wave in mre , such measurement is limited by attenuation . referring to fig1 , 16 a and 16 b , the instant inventors utilized a biopsy needle as the driver to detect the 15 % porcine gel inclusion in a 10 % porcine gel phantom which simulates a tumor in tissues as well as in the model of rabbit with tumor in vivo . it is shown that the biopsy needle driver can accurately measure the stiffness and location of the tumor . an additional benefit is that the biopsy procedure may be carried out at the same time . many lives can be saved when human have routine x - ray , ct or mri examinations of the breast , liver and kidney that can detect breast , liver and kidney cancer in its earliest , most curable stages . however , most of the abnormalities seen on those techniques are not cancer . the most common practice to make a diagnosis is to perform a biopsy in which a sample of tissue is removed from the breast / liver / kidney for analysis . in the past , it required surgical operation that was painful and disfiguring . today , interventional radiologists often can make a diagnosis without surgery with a technique called needle biopsy . in this technique , an ultrasound needle is used to remove small samples of tissue from the breast . it is less painful , much less disfiguring ( there is no scar , mri guided core biopsy left a large scar in the biopsy region ) and requires a shorter recovery time than surgical biopsy , but the specificity is low . the present inventors have designed a needle driver for needle - guided breast , liver and kidney mre in human subjects . the overall objective is to reduce the unnecessary biopsies and interventions , and increase the sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing invasive breast , liver and kidney cancer . the purpose of this study was to justify whether shear waves caused by an inserted biopsy needle can accurately detect and locate the position of tumors . the electromechanical driver with a biopsy needle is shown in fig1 . the biopsy needle ( cook mre ) was 0 . 73 mm diameter and mri compatible . one side of the needle is fixed to the driver and the other side of the needle is inserted into the phantom . the amplified sinusoidal signal was input into the excitation coil . then signal was synchronized to the image sequence and triggered by the pulse sequence . the alternative current creates a magnetic field which is perpendicular with the main magnetic field . this causes oscillation along the vertical direction . the oscillating motion will be transmitted to the phantom by the needle and the propagating shear wave is observed . 10 % porcine gel phantom was used in the experiment to simulate the tissue . a cylindrical 15 % porcine phantom of 20 mm diameter was included in the phantom to simulate the tumor as shown in fig1 . a female new zealand white rabbit ( 6 months old , 4 . 2 kg ) was used in this study . animal research ethics approval was obtained and the institute &# 39 ; s guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were observed . a vx2 hepatocarcinoma lump with the volume of 1 cm × 1 cm × 1 cm was implanted into the left thigh muscle 15 days before the experiment to grow for the tumor . the rabbit was anesthetized with the mixture of ketamine 10 % ( at dose of 150 mg / kg , alfasan , woerden - holland ) and xylazine 2 % ( alfasan , woerden - holland ) at 2 : 1 . the experiment was done in a philips intera achiva 3t system with sense flex - m surface coil . mre uses a phase - contrast technique to image the shear wave . the mre sequence also uses motion sensitizing field gradients which are synchronized to the propagating waves . the field of view ( fov ) is 160 mm . matrix size is 80 × 80 . te / tr = 25 ms / 243 ms . slice thickness is 2 mm . we set the excitation frequency at 150 hz . the stiffness of the phantom is calculated using the equation : μ = ρf 2 λ 2 where ρ is the density of the phantom , f is the excitation frequency of the driver and λ is the shear wavelength measured from the wave images . fig1 a , 17 b , 17 c and 17 d depict transverse stiffness images using the biopsy needle driver ( a ); transversal wave images using the biopsy needle driver ( b ); coronal stiffness images using the biopsy needle driver ( c ), ( the area in the white circle is the inclusion ); the profile of stiffness of the phantom with inclusion ( green lines ) ( d ). fig1 a , 18 b and 18 c show the t 2 , t 1 w and t 1 w stir images respectively of a rabbit leg with a biopsy needle inside the tumor lesion ; fig1 a and 19b respectively depict an anatomy image of a rabbit leg with tumor and an elastogram of a rabbit muscle with tumor ; fig2 is a graph of stiffness value under different frequency , wherein the upper line represents stiffness of tumor and the lower line represents stiffness of normal muscle the experimental result shows that the vibrating biopsy needle can generate propagating waves to differentiate phantoms with different densities and the phenomenon is observed in mre in this experiment . traditionally , surface drivers are used to generate shear waves . however , the shear wave produced by the surface driver may attenuate significantly before reaching the deeper tissues . by using the biopsy needle , this difficulty can be overcome and we can measure the stiffness of tissues in deep location . another merit of the biopsy needle is that we can directly use it to sample the abnormalities for further analysis on a desired site by making use of the mre image . this technology can be used for needle - guided biopsy in patients with breast , liver and kidney lesions . in addition to the experiment with phantom , we have performed in - vivo animal study . fig1 a - c show the t 2 w and shear wave images with the biopsy needle inserted into the leg of normal rabbit at 100 hz . the result illustrates that the biopsy needle driver can provide a clear propagating wave pattern in the muscle of rabbits . fig1 a - b shows the t 2 w image and elastogram with the biopsy needle inserted into the leg with tumor at 85 hz . table 2 shows the stiffness value of the tumor and muscle . the distance between the needle and the edge of the tumor is 5 mm . from the elastogram , we can clearly see the tumor region has higher stiffness value than the muscle . the location of the tumor can be easily identified . thus the biopsy needle as mre driver can be a good tool to precisely detect and localized tumors . it is intended that the specification , drawings and examples can be considered as exemplary only , with the true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims . it should be understood that only the preferred embodiments have been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention are desired to be protected . all patents and publications mentioned in this specification are indicative of the levels of those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains . all patents and publications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference . it is to be understood that while a certain form of the invention is illustrated , it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement herein described and shown . it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention is not to be considered limited to what is shown and described in the specification and any drawings / figures included herein . one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention is well adapted to carry out the objectives and obtain the ends and advantages mentioned , as well as those inherent therein . the embodiments , methods , procedures and techniques described herein are presently representative of the preferred embodiments , are intended to be exemplary and are not intended as limitations on the scope . changes therein and other uses will occur to those skilled in the art which are encompassed within the spirit of the invention and are defined by the scope of the appended claims . although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments , it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments . indeed , various modifications of the described modes for carrying out the invention which are obvious to those skilled in the art are intended to be within the scope of the following claims .
the present invention is directed toward an acoustic , piezoelectric , electric , electro - mechanical or pneumatically driven surface drum driver , in mechanical engagement with a biopsy or acupuncture needle device and a method for its use for diagnosis of small e . g . 100 microns , tumors via the production of magnetic resonance elastographic images , without artifact production , in a magnetic resonance imaging machine . in a second embodiment , the invention is directed toward an acoustically , pneumatically , piezoelectrically , electrically and / or electro - mechanically driven acupuncture needle , useful for simulating manual single - needle acupuncture treatments via a non - manually manipulated acupuncture needle ; and further to a device and process for determination , using twin pneumatically driven surface drivers , of organ stiffness , e . g . brain stiffness , which can be quantified so as to be useful in elucidating and quantifying brain cognitive state , e . g . normal , mild cognitive impairment or alzheimer &# 39 ; s dementia .