title: Application of 1-D transient elastography for the shear modulus assessment of thin-layered soft tissue: comparison with supersonic shear imaging technique.
abstract: Elasticity estimation of thin-layered soft tissues has gained increasing interest propelled by medical applications like skin, corneal, or arterial wall shear modulus assessment. In this work, the authors propose one-dimensional transient elastography (1DTE) for the shear modulus assessment of thin-layered soft tissue. Experiments on three phantoms with different elasticities and plate thicknesses were performed. First, using 1DTE, the shear wave speed dispersion curve inside the plate was obtained and validated with finite difference simulation. No dispersive effects were observed and the shear wave speed was directly retrieved from time-of-flight measurements. Second, the supersonic shear imaging (SSI) technique (considered to be a gold standard) was performed. For the SSI technique, the propagating wave inside the plate is guided as a Lamb wave. Experimental SSI dispersion curves were compared with finite difference simulation and fitted using a generalized Lamb model to retrieve the plate bulk shear wave speed. Although they are based on totally different mechanical sources and induce completely different diffraction patterns for the shear wave propagation, the 1DTE and SSI techniques resulted in similar shear wave speed estimations. The main advantage of the 1DTE technique is that bulk shear wave speed can be directly retrieved without requiring a dispersion model.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Acústica Ultrasonora, Instituto de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Montevideo, Uruguay. jbrum@fisica.edu.uy
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brum
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Gennisson
authors.forename: Thu-Mai
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Benech
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.forename: Mickael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanter
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Negreira
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology*; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D008954:Models, Biological; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results