Quantitative three-dimensional elasticity imaging from quasi-static deformation: a phantom study

We present a methodology to image and quantify the shear elastic modulus of three-dimensional (3D) breast tissue volumes held in compression under conditions similar to those of a clinical mammography system. Tissue phantoms are made to mimic the ultrasonic and mechanical properties of breast tissue. Stiff lesions are created in these phantoms with size and modulus contrast values, relative to the background, that are within the range of values of clinical interest. A two-dimensional ultrasound system, scanned elevationally, is used to acquire 3D images of these phantoms as they are held in compression. From two 3D ultrasound images, acquired at different compressed states, a three-dimensional displacement vector field is measured. The measured displacement field is then used to solve an inverse problem, assuming the phantom material to be an incompressible, linear elastic solid, to recover the shear modulus distribution within the imaged volume. The reconstructed values are then compared to values measured independently by direct mechanical testing.

[1]  K. R. Raghavan,et al.  Forward and inverse problems in elasticity imaging of soft tissues , 1994 .

[2]  Olaf Schenk,et al.  Solving unsymmetric sparse systems of linear equations with PARDISO , 2004, Future Gener. Comput. Syst..

[3]  J. Nocedal.  Updating Quasi-Newton Matrices With Limited Storage , 1980 .

[4]  B. Garra,et al.  Elastography of breast lesions: initial clinical results. , 1997, Radiology.

[5]  K. Winzer,et al.  Real‐time elastography — an advanced method of ultrasound: first results in 108 patients with breast lesions , 2006, Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

[6]  Hui Zhi,et al.  Comparison of Ultrasound Elastography, Mammography, and Sonography in the Diagnosis of Solid Breast Lesions , 2007, Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

[7]  C. Weismann.  Recent Advances in Multidimensional 3D/4D Breast Imaging , 2005 .

[8]  Paul M. Meaney,et al.  Progress in Freehand Elastography of the Breast , 2002 .

[9]  T. Matsumura,et al.  Breast disease: clinical application of US elastography for diagnosis. , 2006, Radiology.

[10]  J. Ophir,et al.  Elastography: A Quantitative Method for Imaging the Elasticity of Biological Tissues , 1991, Ultrasonic imaging.

[11]  Jason P Fine,et al.  Differentiating Benign from Malignant Solid Breast Masses with US Strain Imaging 1 , 2007 .

[12]  Graham M. Treece,et al.  Freehand ultrasound elastography with a 3-D probe. , 2008, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[13]  Andrew H. Gee,et al.  3D elastography using freehand ultrasound. , 2006 .

[14]  O. Schenk,et al.  ON FAST FACTORIZATION PIVOTING METHODS FOR SPARSE SYMMETRI C INDEFINITE SYSTEMS , 2006 .

[15]  Jonathan Ophir,et al.  Comparative evaluation of strain-based and model-based modulus elastography. , 2005, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[16]  J. Bamber,et al.  Quantitative elasticity imaging: what can and cannot be inferred from strain images. , 2002, Physics in medicine and biology.

[17]  Paul E. Barbone,et al.  Elastic modulus imaging: On the uniqueness and nonuniqueness of the elastography inverse problem in , 2004 .

[18]  W. Walker,et al.  A fundamental limit on delay estimation using partially correlated speckle signals , 1995, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[19]  A. Pesavento,et al.  Three-dimensional strain imaging and related strain artifacts using an ultrasonic 3D abdominal probe , 1999, 1999 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings. International Symposium (Cat. No.99CH37027).

[20]  Michael S. Richards,et al.  QUANTITATIVE THREE DIMENSIONAL ELASTICITY IMAGING , 2007 .

[21]  Assad A. Oberai,et al.  INVERSE PROBLEMS PII: S0266-5611(03)54272-1 Solution of inverse problems in elasticity imaging using the adjoint method , 2003 .

[22]  C. Vogel.  Computational Methods for Inverse Problems , 1987 .

[23]  M. Doyley,et al.  Evaluation of an iterative reconstruction method for quantitative elastography , 2000 .

[24]  S Y Emelianov,et al.  Three-dimensional static displacement, stimulated echo NMR elasticity imaging. , 2000, Physics in medicine and biology.

[25]  Michael F. Insana,et al.  Phantoms for elastography , 1996, 1996 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings.

[26]  Jeffrey C Bamber,et al.  Evaluation of the adjoint equation based algorithm for elasticity imaging , 2004, Physics in medicine and biology.

[27]  A.R. Skovoroda,et al.  Tissue elasticity reconstruction based on ultrasonic displacement and strain images , 1995, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[28]  C. Sumi.  Reconstructions of shear modulus, poisson's ratio, and density using approximate mean normal stress /spl lambda//spl epsiv//sub /spl alpha//spl alpha// as unknown , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[29]  Marvin M. Doyley,et al.  Simultaneous elastic image registration and elastic modulus reconstruction , 2004, 2004 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro (IEEE Cat No. 04EX821).

[30]  Duane D. Meixner,et al.  Breast lesions: evaluation with US strain imaging--clinical experience of multiple observers. , 2006, Radiology.

[31]  H. Ermert,et al.  Ultrasonic strain imaging of the female breast using phase root seeking and three-dimensional "optical flow" , 1998, 1998 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings (Cat. No. 98CH36102).

[32]  C. S. Spalding,et al.  In vivo real-time freehand palpation imaging. , 2003, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[33]  A. Martegani,et al.  Elastosonography in the diagnosis of the nodular breast lesions: preliminary report. , 2005, La Radiologia medica.

[34]  Faouzi Kallel,et al.  Tissue elasticity reconstruction using linear perturbation method , 1996, IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging.

[35]  J. Z. Zhu,et al.  The finite element method , 1977 .

[36]  G Crosta.  Mathematical Review: MR2044619 (2005b:74051) Barbone, Paul E.; Gokhale, Nachiket H. Elastic modulus imaging: on the uniqueness and nonuniqueness of the elastography inverse problem in two dimensions , 2005 .

[37]  E. Weinstein,et al.  Delay and Doppler estimation by time-space partition of the array data , 1983 .

[38]  A. Weiss,et al.  Fundamental limitations in passive time delay estimation--Part I: Narrow-band systems , 1983 .