Ultrasound Elastography for Biomedical Applications and Medicine

26 Anisotropic Shear Wave Elastography

Sara Aristizabal

Well Living Lab, Rochester, MN, USA

26.1 Introduction

Shear wave elastography constitutes the principle behind a large range of techniques developed in the last two decades for noninvasive assessment of the mechanical properties of soft tissues such as the breast, skeletal muscle, liver, myocardium, prostate, and kidney, under normal and abnormal conditions [1–4]. The basic principle of most shear wave elastography techniques relies on the use of focused ultrasound to generate acoustic radiation force to vibrate the tissue and generate shear waves. The shear wave group velocity ( is then tracked as a function of time ( and distance ( ). Under the assumption that the tissue is purely elastic, locally homogenous, and isotropic, the shear wave group velocity ( ) can then be related to the shear modulus ( ) and the underlying tissue stiffness can be estimated. Based on these principles, several acoustic radiation force‐based ...