Shear Wave Speed Measurements Using Crawling Wave Sonoelastography and Single Tracking Location Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging for Tissue Characterization

Juvenal Ormachea, Roberto J. Lavarello, Stephen A. McAleavey, Kevin J. Parker, Benjamin Castaneda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Elastography provides tissue stiffness information that attempts to characterize the elastic properties of tissue. However, there is still limited literature comparing elastographic modalities for tissue characterization. This study focuses on two quantitative techniques using different vibration sources that have not been compared to date: crawling wave sonoelastography (CWS) and single tracking location shear wave elasticity imaging (STL-SWEI). To understand each technique's performance, shear wave speed (SWS) was measured in homogeneous phantoms and ex vivo beef liver tissue. Then, the contrast, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and lateral resolution were measured in an inclusion and two-layer phantoms. The SWS values obtained with both modalities were validated with mechanical measurements (MM) which serve as ground truth. The SWS results for the three different homogeneous phantoms (10%, 13%, and 16% gelatin concentrations) and ex vivo beef liver tissue showed good agreement between CWS, STL-SWEI, and MM as a function of frequency. For all gelatin phantoms, the maximum accuracy errors were 2.52% and 2.35% using CWS and STL-SWEI, respectively. For the ex vivo beef liver, the maximum accuracy errors were 9.40% and 7.93% using CWS and STL-SWEI, respectively. For lateral resolution, contrast, and CNR, both techniques obtained comparable measurements for vibration frequencies less than 300 Hz (CWS) and distances between the push beams ( $\Delta x$ ) between 3 mm and 5.31 mm (STL-SWEI). The results obtained in this study agree over an SWS range of 1-6 m/s. They are expected to agree in perfectly linear, homogeneous, and isotropic materials, but the SWS overlap is not guaranteed in all materials because each of the three methods have unique features.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7485840
Pages (from-to)1351-1360
Number of pages10
JournalIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
Volume63
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2016

Keywords

  • Crawling wave sonoelastography (CWS)
  • Tissue characterization
  • elastography
  • single tracking location shear wave elasticity imaging (STL-SWEI)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Shear Wave Speed Measurements Using Crawling Wave Sonoelastography and Single Tracking Location Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging for Tissue Characterization'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this