Principle of Ultrasound Elastography Based on Shear Wave Propagation

Abstract

In recent years, the ultrasonic tissue elasticity imaging equipments commoditized, and its validity has been verified clinically. As the ultrasonic tissue elasticity imaging method, there are a method based on the strain distribution and a method based on the shear wave speed. In this paper, we illustrate the principle of the method based on the shear wave speed. First, we describe the relation between the tissue elasticity and shear wave speed. Next, we describe the shear wave generating method, the shear wave propagation measuring method, the shear wave speed estimation method, and finally, we describe the tissue viscoelasticity estimation method based on the shear wave phase speed.