Aims and objectives
Introduction
Elasticity imaging,
otherwise known as elastography,
plays a significant role in the application of clinical diagnosis by providing useful structural and pathological information on the elastic properties of tissue in the body.
Many pathological processes such as inflammation and tumours can alter tissue elasticity significantly [Krouskop,
1998].
For example,
most cancers,
such as scirrhous carcinoma of the breast,
appear to be very stiff compared to normal tissue [Anderson,
1953].
One of the latest developments in elastography imaging is Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) (Refer to...
Methods and materials
The methodology of this research can be divided into two parts.
Fig.3 summarises the flow of the methodology of this study.
1.
Phantom construction
1.1 Phantoms for calibration of elasticity
The phantoms were constructed to give guidelines as to how much gelatine needs to be added to produce phantoms within required range of elasticity.
Each phantom was constructed without any internal inclusions in them.
Different amount of gelatines (8 to 24 g with 4 g increasing step) were dissolved in 150 ml of water and...
Results
Calibration of Phantom Elasticity
Fig.12 shows the SWE mode overview of background phantom with 4,
8,
12,
16,
20 and 24 g of gelatine added.
The colour scale on the top right depicts quantitative values of elasticity shown in the ROI while the qualitative values of elasticity measured in each ROIs were displayed on the right.
The values of the elasticity were shown in three ways: mean,
min and max.
The mean elasticity values were taken into account as it is the most relevant values....
Conclusion
The main objective of this study,
which was to investigate tissue elasticity measurement using SWE has been achieved.
An elasticity calibration curve had been constructed to give the reference elasticity values based on the amount of gelatine added.
The calibration curve gave a linear relationship between the elasticity and the mass of gelatine and both the variables were proven to be strongly corelated.
A homogenous phantom that simulates lesions of varying sizes,
stiffness and depth had been constructed to investigate the factors affecting the elasticity....
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