Introduction :

One of the key medical methods for detection and characterization of pathologies is the assessment of tissue stiffness by palpation. The importance of clinical assessment of tissue stiffness has been known since ancient times: In Pharonic Egypt, more than 5 000 years ago, physicians practiced palpation of body parts to determine tissue stiffness. They knew that a hard mass within an organ was often a sign of an abnormality. Since then, palpation has been used for screening and diagnosis, but is also used during interventional procedures to guide the surgeon to the area of pathology.

Today, a new diagnostic imaging modality, called elastography, has emerged which uses ultrasound to assess tissue differences in stiffness (or elasticity). It provides an imaging representation of what was historically assessed qualitatively by palpation. The main objectives of elastography are to improve diagnostic confidence and increase specificity of the ultrasound exam.

SuperSonic Imagine’s ShearWave™ Elastography is a new ultrasound imaging concept designed to achieve these objectives. Based on automatic generation and analysis of transient shear waves, the mode has the major advantage of assessing true tissue elasticity in real-time with reproducible and user-skill independent results.

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