A Method to Detect Dynamic Characteristics of Small Biological Soft Tissues and Its Application to Human Prostate Tissue

Abstract

A novel method for detection of dynamic characteristics of biological soft tissues is presented. In this method, viscoelastic properties of soft tissues are measured indirectly by using free damped vibrations of small cantilever beam following a small impact applied at the beam end where a small piece of specimen is suspended. Natural frequencies and logarithmic decrements of the vibrations are measured in order to find out elasticity constant and viscous damping coefficient of the soft tissues. As a practical application, viscoelasticity of normal, hypertrophied, and cancerous human prostate tissues obtained at autopsy were measured. It was found that the present method was capable of detecting changes in viscoelasticity caused by these pathological changes, suggesting a feasibility of this method for the application of tissue characterization.