A Multiwave Imaging Approach for Elastography

Abstract

Interactions between waves can be turned into profit to break diffraction limits and invent new kinds of medical images. It consists in productively combining two very different waves -- one to provide contrast, another to provide spatial resolution -in order to build a new kind of image, Multiwave imaging provides a unique image of the most interesting contrast with the most interesting resolution. We will show in this paper how this general concept of multiwave imaging allow to perform high resolution and quantitative elasticity imaging of the human body. Here, the two waves are sonic shear waves and ultrasonic compressional waves. A comparison with static elastography (a single wave technique) will show the interest of multiwave imaging and various clinical examples will be presented to illustrate the efficiency of this approach. Keywords: Ultrasound, elastography, ultrafast imaging, cancer, elasticity, shear wave imaging, radiology, medical imaging