Clinical practice guidelines for ultrasound elastography: prostate
The details of the principles of the elastography currently used in the clinical field are shown in Table 1, largely divided into strain imaging and shear wave imaging [1] Strain imaging can be strain elastography (SE) in which the tissue is manually compressed and deformed to measure and assess the generated strain, or acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging, in which the displacement of the tissue generated by the acoustic radiation force from ultrasound is imaged. Shear wave imaging involves generating shear waves in the body and calculating the elasticity of the tissue from the propagation velocity; this is, in many cases, shear wave elastography (SWE) in which the acoustic radiation force is used for the generation of the shear waves. Distortion represents the elasticity with respect to a static deformation, while the propagation of shear waves represents the deformation in the band of the shear waves (up to 1 kHz) it is understood that the elasticities assessed by SE and SWE are not necessarily the same, in that the influence from viscosity is included as well as that of elasticity.
Journal of Medical Ultrasonics