Ultrasound Elastography for Biomedical Applications and Medicine

30 Current and Future Clinical Applications of Elasticity Imaging Techniques

Matthew Urban

Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

30.1 Introduction

Elastography or elasticity imaging is a field of medical imaging that is aimed at quantifying the mechanical properties of living tissues [1]. Palpation has been used for centuries by physicians to examine patients because it is well known that diseased tissue “feels” stiffer than normal tissue in many pathologies. Disease changes structure, which alters function, and manifests as symptoms. However, change in structure and composition also changes the mechanical properties of the tissue. For example, fibrosis is the result of an inflammatory response that destroys working functional units in an organ. Fibrosis results from an increase in collagen replacing the normal tissue, which makes the organ stiffer than when the healthy functional units are present [2]. Additionally, blood flow and environmental changes due to tumor presence can also alter the local stiffness of organs. However, palpation has several disadvantages, including its subjectivity, dependence on the proficiency of the examiner, reproducibility, and insensitivity to deep structures.

Elastography offers an approach for noninvasive, reproducible, objective, and high resolution characterization of the mechanical properties of tissues [1]. Any form of elastography depends on deforming the tissue with some sort of stress and the measurement ...