Abstract
This paper reviews a current progress of ultrasonic elastography and discusses the point of difference and common point between magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) under development and the ultrasonic elastography, with the aim of exploring a possibility of complementary coexistence between the MRE and the ultrasonic elastography. The ultrasonic elastography has already been put to practical use and its clinical effectiveness is gradually being verified. On the other hand, if the MRE technology put to practical use, the MRE might become used as a complementary approach of the ultrasonic elastography to the diagnosis and so on, as analogized from the complementary relationship between conventional diagnostic ultrasonic imaging and MRI.
