Abstract
Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is one of the non-invasive methods to measure the viscoelastic properties of tissue. In MRE measurement, viscoelastic properties are estimated from the wavelength and damping factor of the viscoelastic waves in the object; however, the influence of reflection and refraction are not considered in the estimation methods applied (e.g., algebraic inversion of the differential equation and elastic wave fitting). Therefore, in general, reflection and refraction are avoided by shortening the interval between object oscillation and acquisition of the MRE signal. However, the viscoelastic properties of transient-state oscillation can be measured using this method, since a specific time period is necessary to realize steady-state oscillation. This may lead to a less accurate measurement of the viscoelastic properties. In this paper, we first show that the viscoelastic properties in transient-state oscillation are measured when the interval between object oscillation and MRE signal acquisition is short, and show that the accuracy of viscoelastic properties is high when using steady-state oscillation. Then, we propose a reflection reduction method using a spatio-temporal directional filter (STDF). The experiments using a silicon gel phantom showed that the viscoelastic properties during transient-state oscillation were measured when the interval between object oscillation and MRE signal acquisition was short. These results suggest that steady-state oscillation improves the accuracy of viscoelastic property measurement. In addition, the reflection wave could be reduced using the STDF, which leads improved accuracy in measuring the viscoelastic properties of MRE images with reflected waves.
