Souquet, Ph.D. Jacques

Jacques SOUQUET, Ph.D

SuperSonic Imagine

キーワード :

A new imaging modality has been introduced recently: tissue elasticity assessment. It provides the information of a new tissue parameter related to the physiopathology of an organ or a lesion type, therefore increasing diagnostic confidence of the physician as compared to conventional ultrasound. This approach leverages the properties of a new kind of wave propagation in tissue: shear wave. Shear wave velocity in a non-viscous environment is directly proportional to the square root of Young’s modulus. Launching a shear wave in tissue, assessing the speed （group velocity） at which it propagates （typically less than 10m/sec） by leveraging compressional wave interaction with shear wave enables the assessment of tissue stiffness. Various clinical results obtained on breast, thyroid, liver and prostate will be given to illustrate the power of the method.
However there are limitations to this method in case of viscous tissues, where dispersion is a limiting factor. In this case one can leverage the wide bandwidth of shear wave acquisition to measure the shear wave phase velocity as a function of frequency and extract the global value of both elasticity and viscosity of the medium of interest. We will demonstrate results obtained with this approach in phantoms and liver tissue.
A complete real time assessment of the mechanical properties of tissue can then be assessed: tissue density through conventional grey scale imaging , and tissue elasticity and viscosity with shear wave propagation.

Jacques Souquet, Ph.D. is the founder and President of SuperSonic Imagine, a company involved in the development of a new generation of ultrasound imaging systems based on shear wave propagation and time reversal. Dr. Souquet has served as Chief Scientific and Technol-ogy Officer （CTO） and Senior Vice President of Philips Medical Systems from 2000 to 2005 ; prior to that he was CTO and Senior Vice President for Product Generation at ATL Ultrasound from 1993 to 2000. From March 1989 to June 1993, Dr. Souquet served as Director of Strategic Marketing and Product Planning and Vice President for Product Generation of ATL Ultrasound. He joined ATL Ultrasound in August 1981 as a principal scientist in the cardiology division.
Dr. Souquet received a High Engineering Degree from Ecole Superieure d’Electricite of Paris, France, a Ph.D. degree from Orsay University of France in the field of optical memory, and a second Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in the field of new acoustic imaging techniques for medical ultrasound applications and nondestructive testing.
Dr. Souquet was member of the board of Directors of SonoSite, Inc., a company devoted to the development of hand carried ultrasound systems. He is on the board of Median Technologies, a French company involved in computer aided detection for medical applications.
He is the inventor of the multiplane transesophageal echo probe, which is now used in 30％ of all ultrasound echocardiography examinations.
Dr. Souquet is the recipient of 15 patents in the field of ultrasound imaging. He is the author if more than 60 technical papers and has been keynote speaker at major technical and clinical meetings on a worldwide basis.