Elastography

Abstract

We present a concise summary of some of the fundamentals and of our work in the field of elastography over the past 12 years. This summary is not exhaustive, since several recent reviews of this area are available. We begin by presenting some relevant background material from the field of biomechanics, which forms the foundation of this work. We then proceed to discuss the basic principles and limitations that are involved in the production of strain images (elastograms) of biological tissues. Early results as well as current results from biological tissues in vitro and in vivo are shown. We conclude with some thoughts regarding the potential of elastography for medical diagnosis.