Ultrasound elastography of breast cancer-related lymphedema

Accurate methods of staging breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) are lacking and have become a major cause of concern among clinicians. However, with the application of novel techniques in ultrasound elastography, clinicians may be able to better assess BCRL and provide targeted treatments to reduce the progression of this condition. In this paper, we propose to use strain images estimated using quasi-static ultrasound elastography techniques to investigate its usefulness in staging lymphedema. We further propose a novel approach for estimating the strain images from two frames of ultrasound data. Using data collected from two patients with lymphedema, we show that strain images can potentially be used to accurately diagnose lymphedema. Using phantom and in-vivo data, we further show that the proposed strain estimation technique substantially outperforms previous work.