THEORY AND APPLICATION OF SONOELASTICITY IMAGING

Sonoelasticity imaging uses low-frequency (100-Hz) vibrations in tissu e and Doppler imaging of vibration patterns to detect and define hard tumors. Fundamental theoretical considerations of sonoelasticity imagi ng are reviewed in this article, to predict the image of a small hard tumor in a background of softer elastic tissue. Comparisons from exper imental work on elastic phantoms and from finite element analyses conf irm the ability of vibration images to define Small inhomogeneities. ( C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.