Fast reconstruction of quantitative tissue elasticity image based on modified 3-d finite-element model

For tissue elasticity imaging, strain imaging technique is being used in clinical tests (3). However, strain image corresponds to visualizing the qualitative information about tissue hardness. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method for reconstructing tissue hardness as quantitatively as possible from ultrasound data using 1-D array ultrasonic probe. In this method, we use a modified 3-D finite-element model. Using this model, it becomes possible to estimate Young's modulus only from the 2-D strain distribution. Moreover, since we can use the more realistic 3-D elastic equations in the modified 3-D model, it is possible to estimate Young's modulus more quantitatively. We compared the performance of the proposed method with other methods based on the 1-D model, 2-D model and 3-D model. Consequently, although the proposed method is comparable to the 3-D model method in accuracy, this method has 4.0 times precision better than the 1-D model method, 3.0 to 1.5 times precision better than the 2-D model method. Moreover, the proposed method can attain high-speed processing about 170 times faster than the method using 3-D model.