Simultaneous estimation of shear elastic modulus and backscatter coefficient: Phantom and in human liver in vivo study

The use of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) parameters to characterize tissue has shown potential to improve current clinical diagnosis. However, most studies in QUS have used parameters derived from either ultrasonic compressional or low frequency shear wave in isolation, thereby discarding additional information these parameters may carry. In this study, the feasibility of estimating both shear wave speed (SWS) and backscatter coefficient (BSC) when using a unique data set is demonstrated both with physical phantoms and in vivo human liver data. The phantom results showed contrast values of 8.16 and 1.71 for BSC and SWS. The in vivo liver results for BSC and SWS were in good agreement with previously reported values in the literature. Therefore, these results demonstrate that multi-parameter tissue characterization using BSC and SWS have a promising potential to track changes in both microscopic and macroscopic properties of tissue.