Real-time Tissue Elastography

Abstract

Real-time tissue elastography is an emerging diagnostic tool that uses ultrasound to differentiate between hard and soft tissue. Typically, gentle freehand compression is used to apply 'stress' to tissue and the resulting 'strain' or displacement, is displayed as a colour overlay on a conventional B-mode ultrasound image. Elastography has the potential to increase examination specificity and thus reduce the need for diagnostic invasive procedures. Second generation technology, which quantifies strain characteristics, is bringing further improvements in diagnostic accuracy. Real-time tissue elastography has proven applications in breast, prostate, thyroid and pancreatic disease and where diagnostic biopsy is indicated, elastography allows more accurate localisation and targeting of lesions. This paper briefly reviews the underlying principles of the technique and outlines the current clinical applications.

Role of Strain Elastography in the Evaluation of Testicular Torsion

“…Real‐time strain elastography is a relatively new technique that measures tissue stiffness. A stressing force as compression is applied, and strain, which is displacement of the tissue as a response to a stress, is produced 8. Real‐time strain elastography gives information about tissue hardness marked by different colors as red, green, yellow, and blue.…”

“…A stressing force as compression is applied, and strain, which is displacement of the tissue as a response to a stress, is produced. 8 Real-time strain elastography gives information about tissue hardness marked by different colors as red, green, yellow, and blue. Mostly, blue represents hard and sclerotic parts, and red represents softness in the tissues.…”

“…The stiffness of the tissues was displayed in a color-coded map, where soft tissues appeared in red, hard tissues in blue, and intermediate degrees of elasticity in green. 8 The elastograms were obtained by overlaying color images on Bmode images. Ellipsoid regions of interest were placed over the testes, including the whole testis area.…”

“…We classified the real-time strain elastograms into 4 patterns according to the tissue hardness by using a method developed by different authors, which has been explained in various studies (Figure 1). [8][9][10][11][12] Figures 2-4 give examples of cases with different elastographic patterns.…”

Quantitative Measurement for Thyroid Cancer Characterization Based on Elastography

“…The criterion is qualitative and subjective. The second is a semiquantitative criterion 8 . Radiologists delineate the lesion region and a surrounding normal tissue region at the same depth on the elastogram separately; the mean values of the elasticity of the normal tissue region and the lesion are calculated, and their ratio is used as the strain ratio.…”