Simulation, design, and implementation of external mechanical vibration for ultrasound shear wave elastography

Ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) has gained wide acceptance as a non-invasive and quantitative clinical diagnostic modality. To realize SWE on low-cost systems, external mechanical vibration (EMV) is rising as an alternative to acoustic radiation force (ARF) for shear wave generation. In this paper, we present simulation, design, and implementation of an EMV-based SWE concept. Multiple EMV designs were integrated with a commercial ultrasound system capable of conventional ARF-based SWE. Experimental results demonstrated effective shear wave generation with EMV and shear wave motion tracking using the commercial system on various tissue mimicking elasticity phantoms. Final shear wave reconstruction indicated good agreement in stiffness measurement between the ARF-based and the EMV-based approach.