A review of the medical applications of shear wave elastography

Abstract

Supersonic shear wave elastography (SWE) is a quantitative stiffness imaging technique based on the combination of a radiation force induced in tissue by an ultrasonic beam and ultrafast ultrasound imaging sequence (up to more than 10,000 frames per second) catching in real time the propagation of the resulting shear waves. Local shear wave speed is estimated and enables the two dimensional mapping of shear elasticity. This imaging modality is implemented on conventional probes driven by dedicated ultrafast echographic devices and can be performed during a standard ultrasound exam. The clinical potential of SSI is today extensively investigated for many potential applications such as breast cancer diagnosis, liver fibrosis staging, cardiovascular applications, and ophthalmology. This invited lecture will present an overview of the current investigated applications of SSI and the new trends of shear wave elastography research topics.

Feasibility of coded vibration in a vibro-ultrasound system for tissue elasticity measurement

“…3,4,19 The internal displacement can be used to measure either local elasticity, as in acoustic radiation force imaging (ARFI), 19,20 or remote elasticity property by detecting the shear waves as in shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI). 3,21 Later, the supersonic shear imaging (SSI) was proposed 7 to provide quantitative shear modulus mapping of tissues with a high frame rate, which ensures a real-time visualization of the two-dimensional (2-D) elasticity map. Since biological tissues are usually dispersive to shear waves, shear wave dispersion ultrasound vibrometry (SDUV) method was developed to measure both elasticity and viscosity.…”

Fourier-Domain Shift Matching: A Robust Time-of-Flight Approach for Shear Wave Speed Estimation

“…Pathological evolution of many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and fibrotic changes in livers is typically accompanied by gradual changes in a spectrum of tissue viscoelastic properties. In the last decade, significant research efforts have been devoted to ultrasound-based elastographic techniques [1], [2], [3] that can be used to non-invasively quantify viscoelastic properties of soft tissues in vivo . Among them, shear wave elastography (SWE) [3] characterizes tissue elasticity mainly based on quantification of propagating shear wave speed (SWS) inside the tissue of interest.…”

“…In the last decade, significant research efforts have been devoted to ultrasound-based elastographic techniques [1], [2], [3] that can be used to non-invasively quantify viscoelastic properties of soft tissues in vivo . Among them, shear wave elastography (SWE) [3] characterizes tissue elasticity mainly based on quantification of propagating shear wave speed (SWS) inside the tissue of interest. This is done by first inducing shear waves using mechanical excitation and then estimating the propagating SWS through a sequence of time-resolved (particle) displacement or velocity curves.…”