Elastography: imaging of tissue elastic properties in vivo

We have constructed an apparatus for practising elastography in the breast in-vivo. It allows a direct comparison between sonograms and elastograms of a given anatomical site. We will demonstrate that (1) elastograms convey new information, and thus the elastographic appearance of breast tumors is different than their sonographic appearance, and (2) that it is possible to elastographically visualize known breast cancers which are poorly visualized or not visualized at all in sonograms. Due to the sensitivity and low noise in elastography, other potential applications include the visualization of normal, low-contrast tissues such as the internal structures of the kidney and the prostate. Finally, we will discuss some of the theoretical tradeoffs among signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity, dynamic range and resolution in elastography.