Discrepancies in Reporting Tissue Material Properties
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Over the last two decades, the field of ultrasound elastography has offered several noninvasive techniques to measure elasticity of various tissues with the aim of producing a clinical tool that would identify pathology based on variation in tissue elasticity 1 .The potential of this rapidly evolving field is evidenced by the numerous clinical studies reporting alterations in liver, breast, kidney, prostate and thyroid elasticity due to various disease processes such as fibrosis and cancer 1 .We read with interest the article entitled "Evaluation of liver tumors using acoustic radiation force impulse elastography and correlation with histologic data" by Frulio, et al 2 .However, throughout this article we noted a substantial error in the reporting of the elastography results.The authors used an elastography method called acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography which uses focused ultrasound to produce shear waves in the tissue.(This method should be distinguished from the ARFI imaging method that maps the displacement from radiation force-based excitations 3 ).The shear wave motion is then tracked with pulse-echo ultrasound and Doppler processing.The shear wave speed, c s , is related to the shear modulus, μ, of the tissue by the relationship, , where ρ is the mass density of the tissue.While the paper presents important clinical findings on the use of this elastography mode for examining liver tumors, we have also noticed several physical misconceptions and nomenclatorial inaccuracies that, with the future of the development of the field in mind, we feel are necessary to address.
Institution: Mayo Clinic
Language: English
Subfield: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2081722161