Probing Tissue Viscoelasticity With STL Ultrasound Shearwave Spectroscopy Using Cole–Cole Diagrams

Objective: Viscoelasticity is mapped by dispersion in shearwave elastography. Incomplete spectral information of shearwaves is therefore used to estimate mechanical stiffness. We propose capturing the “full-waveform-information” of the shear wave spectra to better resolve complex shear modulus
$\mu ^{*} (\omega)$
. Approach is validated on phantom models, animal tissues, and feasibility demonstrated on human post-delivery placenta. Methods: We captured robust estimates of
$\mu ^{*}$
in
ex-vivo
livers subjected to water bath ablation, glutaraldehyde exposure and in the placenta. Results: Complex modulus at 200 Hz is more reflective of tissue stiffness than cross-correlation estimate. Bias increased in phantoms with higher gelatin (G) (0.65: 6% G) and oil (O) (0.58: 6% G and 40% O) concentration, compared to elastic phantoms with low stiffness (0.33: 3% G). Actual tissues also reported higher bias in cross-correlation estimate (rabbit liver: 0.61, porcine liver: 2.20, and human placenta: 0.63). Stiffness is sensitive to ablation temperature, where the overall modulus changed from 3.02 KPa at 16 °C to 2.75 KPa at 56 °C in water bath. With exposure to Glutaraldehyde, the overall modulus increased from 2.37 to 9.03 KPa. Reconstruction errors in the loss modulus decreased by 68% with the power law compared to a Maxwell model in porcine livers with Cole-Cole inverse fitting. Conclusion: Omitting Shear wave attenuation leads to bias. Reconstruction of rheological response with a model is sensitive to its architecture and also the framework. Significance: We use “full spectral information” in ultrasound shear wave elastography to better map
$\mu ^{*}(\omega)$
changes in viscoelastic tissues.