The effect of stretching on transmural shear wave anisotropy in cardiac shear wave elastography

Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) is a potential tool for non-invasively assessing myocardial stiffness to support diagnosis and treatment choice in patients with cardiac disorders. Previous studies revealed a 3D anisotropic shear wave propagation in cardiac SWE due to the intrinsic myocardial fiber organization. The aim of this work is to further investigate the performance of cardiac SWE by studying the effect of uniaxial stretching on anisotropic shear wave propagation and characterization. Results showed a clear increase in the 75
^th
percentile of group and dominant phase speed during stretching, mainly due to an increase in speed along the fiber direction. The maximum of these velocities also shifted spatially while stretching, indicating an alignment of the fibers to the stretch direction. Complementary numerical modeling will further examine the combined effect of cardiac fiber architecture and loading in SWE.