Elastography

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 exha ustive, since several recent reviews of this area are available. We begin b y presenting some relevant background material from the field of biomechani cs, which forms the foundation of this work. We then proceed to discuss the basic principles and limitations that are involved in the production of st rain images (elastograms) of biological tissues. Early results as well as c urrent results from biological tissues in vitro and in vivo are shown. We c onclude with some thoughts regarding, the potential of elastography for med ical diagnosis. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et me dicales Elsevier SAS.