24 Single Tracking Location Shear Wave Elastography
Stephen A. McAleavey
Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
24.1 Introduction
Shear wave elastography (SWE) infers tissue mechanical properties by observing the propagation of shear waves in the tissue [1–3]. Conventional methods for estimating tissue mechanical properties (e.g. indentation, uniaxial loading [4]) are invasive and require direct contact with tissue samples. Compared with these methods, SWE has the advantages of being noninvasive and nondestructive, and allows in vivo quantification of tissue mechanical properties. The speed, attenuation, and distortion of a shear wave as it propagates are determined by the mechanical properties of the tissue. By measuring these wave characteristics we can in principle estimate the properties of the tissue that supports the wave.
For instance, in an elastic medium the speed 
of a shear wave is related to the shear modulus 
by 
, where 
is the density of the medium. Thus, by measuring the speed of propagation of a shear wave in a ...
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