Abstract
In recent years, non-invasive measurement of tissue stiffness (hardness) using ultrasound elastography has attracted considerable attention. It has been used to evaluate muscle stiffness in the fields of rehabilitation, sports, and orthopedics. However, ultrasonic diagnostic devices with elastography systems are expensive and clinical use of such devices has been limited. In this study, we proposed a novel estimation method for vibration-based shear wave elastography measurement of human skeletal muscle, then determined its reproducibility and reliability. The coefficient of variation and correlation coefficient were used to determine reproducibility and reliability of the method by measuring the shear wave velocities in konjac phantom gels and agar phantom gels, as well as skeletal muscle. The intra-day, day-to-day, and inter-operator reliabilities were good when measuring the shear wave velocities in phantom gels. The intra-day and day-to-day reliabilities were good when measuring the shear wave velocities in skeletal muscle. The findings confirmed adequate reproducibility and reliability of the novel estimation method for vibration-based shear wave elastography. Therefore, the proposed measurement method may be a useful tool for evaluation of muscle stiffness.
Highlights
IntroductionNon-invasive measurement of tissue stiffness (hardness) using ultrasound elastography has attracted considerable attention
In recent years, non-invasive measurement of tissue stiffness using ultrasound elastography has attracted considerable attention
In ultrasound shear wave elastography, shear waves can be launched in a controlled manner by external mechanical vibrations[11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22] and acoustic radiation force impulses[23,24,25,26,27,28]
Summary
Non-invasive measurement of tissue stiffness (hardness) using ultrasound elastography has attracted considerable attention. We proposed a novel estimation method for vibration-based shear wave elastography measurement of human skeletal muscle, determined its reproducibility and reliability. A method known as ultrasound strain elastography has been used to assess skeletal muscle stiffness In this method, an ultrasonic diagnostic probe is held to the body surface and minimal repetitive pressure is applied to tissues. Most commercial ultrasound shear wave elastography systems (e.g., Philips, GE Healthcare, Siemens, Canon, Mindray, Samsung, and Supersonic) use acoustic radiation force impulse-based techniques to generate ultrasonic shear waves in tissues[27,28] This method requires strong ultrasonic waves, but undesirable temperature elevation can occur if bone and surrounding tissues are located near the focal p oint[29]. It is difficult to introduce such systems in general clinical practice, rehabilitation facilities, and sports medicine clinics
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