Towards 3D passive shear elasticity imaging using row-columns arrays

The stiffening of soft tissues has been demonstrated to be associated with different disease processes such as cancer. In the last decades several devices and techniques have been developed to provide 2D maps of elasticity in order to help in diagnosis. 3D shear elasticity imaging was recently implemented with matrix arrays using the acoustic radiation force of ultrasound as shear wave source. However, matrix arrays require large number of channels and data to be processed. Row Column Arrays (RCAs) are a cheaper alternative to volume imaging since they require lower number of channels. However, at present RCAs are unable to generate acoustic radiation force due to their design and manufacturing process. To overcome the need of acoustic radiation force for elasticity imaging, in this work we implemented a passive elastography approach based on noise correlation of a complex elastic wave field to conduct 3D shear elasticity imaging using RCAs. Experiments were conducted on a tissue mimicking phantom demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.