Abstract
Palpation allows physicians to assess change in the mechanical properties of tissue associated with the presence and development of disease. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is an imaging technique for the noninvasive quantification of the mechanical properties of tissue using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Typical MRE system uses an external driver to create shear wave in the tissue, a phase-contrast MRI pulse sequence to take snapshots of temporally sequential shear wave pattern in the tissue and an inversion algorithm to calculate viscoelastic map from the shear wave snapshots. These three components are improved over the last 20 years and strongly dependent on each other. The improvement of MRE system have allowed for imaging various organs and have shown effectiveness for staging and differential diagnosis. This review describes the principles, technique, and clinical applications of MRE.
