Elastography of breast lesions: initial clinical results.

Abstract

Elastography has the potential to be useful in the evaluation of areas of shadowing on the sonogram. It also may be helpful in the distinction of benign from malignant masses.

Detecting stiff masses using strain‐encoded (SENC) imaging

“…The new tagging pattern along the z-direction can be described by the function f͑p,t͒ ϭ cos͑ ͑p,t͒z p ͒, [2] where (p,t) describes the local spatial frequency of the tagging pattern for a location p and time t, which should be Ͼ 0 . Unless otherwise stated, we refer to the local spatial frequency of the tagging pattern inside a piece of tissue simply as the tissue frequency.…”

“…However, palpation is a qualitative procedure that depends on the experience of the performing physician, and small or deeply embedded masses often cannot be detected. To overcome these limitations, other techniques have been suggested to image the distribution of a tissue's mechanical properties, such as elasticity (2). Ultrasound has been used to measure tissue displacement associated with externally applied compressive and cyclic force (2)(3)(4)(5).…”

“…To overcome these limitations, other techniques have been suggested to image the distribution of a tissue's mechanical properties, such as elasticity (2). Ultrasound has been used to measure tissue displacement associated with externally applied compressive and cyclic force (2)(3)(4)(5). MRI is another modality used to image elasticity in what is called MR elastography (MRE) (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16).…”

A New Method for the Acquisition of Ultrasonic Strain Image Volumes

“…Several potential applications have been identified, including the detection of tumours in soft tissue [3,11,25], the monitoring of atherosclerosis [7,23] and the measurement of skin elasticity [27,6]. This paper is concerned with quasi-static strain imaging [21], which is achieved in 2D by comparing radio-frequency (RF) echo signals from two or more B-scans with a small difference in the axial compression applied through the ultrasound probe.…”

Dynamic Resolution Selection in Ultrasonic Strain Imaging

“…Valuable applications seem likely in numerous areas of medical diagnostics, among them improved screening for soft tissue tumours including breast [1,11] and prostate [9] cancer. With clinical adoption emerging as a realistic goal, practical requirements such as a high frame rate [10,13], robustness [6,14] and ease-of-use are becoming increasingly important considerations.…”