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Purpose: To measure normal renal stiffness in adults, taking into account regional variation, hydration, and urinary status., Methods: Thirty-six healthy volunteers were examined by tomoelastography based on MR elastography at four frequencies, from 40 to 70 Hz and multifrequency shear wave speed recovery. Regional wave speeds were derived for the medulla, cortex (inner cortex and outer cortex), and renal pelvis, and examined for age-related effects. Subgroups were repeatedly examined for reproducibility, amount of prior water drinking, and urinary status. Variations in renal perfusion were simulated ex vivo using a porcine kidney subjected to venous water inflow at different pressures., Results: Shear wave speed (stiffness) of renal parenchyma was 2.46 ± 0.12 m/s (inner cortex: 2.91 ± 0.17 m/s; outer cortex: 2.52 ± 0.11 m/s; medulla: 2.15 ± 0.08 m/s) without side differences and a tendency toward softening with age (P = 0.028). Corresponding intraclass correlation for reproducibility coefficients were 0.78 (inner cortex: 0.80; outer cortex: 0.81; medulla: 0.80). Water drinking resulted in slightly higher values in inner cortex and lower values in medulla (both P = 0.039), which was consistent with the results in perfused specimens. A full bladder led to higher renal pelvis stiffness (P = 0.004), whereas renal parenchyma remained uninfluenced. Stiffness of the porcine renal cortex increased with venous inflow pressure, whereas medulla stiffness decreased., Conclusions: Tomoelastography provides full field of view maps of renal stiffness with highly detailed resolution and sensitivity to physiological effects related to age and fluid-solid tissue interactions. These basic data could be used to compare pathological conditions in the future. Magn Reson Med 79:2126-2134, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine., (© 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) of the prostate using externally placed drivers., Methods: Three pressurized-air drivers were used to excite shear waves within the prostate at vibration frequencies of 60, 70, and 80 Hz. Full 3D wave fields were acquired by multislice spin-echo echo-planar imaging in conjunction with tomoelastography wave speed recovery for generating full field-of-view stiffness maps. Twelve healthy volunteers were repeatedly scanned to analyze test-retest reproducibility. Five patients with suspected prostate cancer were investigated to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of the method., Results: In healthy volunteers, the shear wave speed of the entire prostate was 2.24 ± 0.20 m/s with a repeatability coefficient of 0.14 m/s and 88% intraclass correlation coefficient. No significant difference between the peripheral zone (2.27 ± 0.20 m/s) and the central gland (2.22 ± 0.23 m/s) was observed. In patients, wave-speed maps displayed stiff regions consistent with the localization of suspicious masses detected by other imaging markers., Conclusions: The proposed method provides reproducible quantitative maps of tissue stiffness throughout the pelvic region and can easily be integrated into clinical imaging protocols. Clinical stiffness maps display many details of potential interest for cancer diagnosis. Magn Reson Med 79:1325-1333, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine., (© 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Purpose: To develop a compact magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) protocol for abdomen and to investigate the effect of water uptake on tissue stiffness in the liver, spleen, kidney, and pancreas., Methods: Nine asymptomatic volunteers were investigated by MRE before and after 1 liter water uptake. Shear-wave excitation at four frequencies was transferred to the abdomen from anterior and posterior directions using pressurized air drivers. Tomographic representations of shear-wave speed were produced by analysis of multifrequency wave numbers in axial and coronal images acquired within four breath-holds or under free breathing, respectively., Results: Pre and post water, stiffness of the spleen (pre/post: 2.20 ± 0.10/2.06 ± 0.18 m/s) and kidney (pre/post: 1.93 ± 0.22/1.97 ± 0.23 m/s) was higher than in the liver (pre/post: 1.36 ± 0.10/1.38 ± 0.13 m/s) and pancreas (pre/post: 1.20 ± 0.12/1.20 ± 0.08 m/s), all P < 0.01. Accounting for four drive frequencies, water drinking only changed the splenic stiffness (-6%, P = 0.03), whereas in the frequency range from 50 to 60 Hz the effect became significant also in the pancreas (-6%, P = 0.04) and liver (+3%, P = 0.03). Elastograms of the kidney in coronal view clearly depicted higher stiffness in cortex than in medulla., Conclusion: Tomoelastography reveals sensitivity of tissue mechanical properties to the hydration state of multiple abdominal organs within one scan and in unprecedented resolution of anatomical details. Magn Reson Med 78:976-983, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine., (© 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo wideband MR elastography (wMRE) using continuous, time-harmonic shear vibrations in the frequency range of 10-50 Hz., Theory and Methods: The method was tested in a gel phantom with marked mechanical loss. The brains and livers of eight volunteers were scanned by wMRE using multislice, single-shot MRE with optimized fractional encoding and synchronization of sequence acquisition to vibration. Multifrequency three-dimensional inversion was used to reconstruct compound maps of magnitude |G*| and phase φ of the complex shear modulus. A new phase estimation, φ*, was developed to avoid systematic bias due to noise., Results: In the phantom, G*-dispersion measured by wMRE agreed well with oscillatory shear rheometry. |G*| and φ* measured at vibrations of 10-25 HZ, 25-35 HZ, and 40-50 HZ were 0.62 ± 0.08, 1.56 ± 0.16, 2.18 ± 0.20 kPa and 0.09 ± 0.17, 0.39 ± 0.16, 0.20 ± 0.13 rad in brain and 0.89 ± 0.11, 1.67 ± 0.20, 2.27 ± 0.35 kPa and 0.15 ± 0.10, 0.24 ± 0.05, 0.26 ± 0.05 rad in liver. Elastograms including all frequencies showed the best resolution of anatomical detail with |G*| = 1.38 ± 0.12 kPa, φ* = 0.24 ± 0.10 rad (brain) and |G*| = 1.79 ± 0.23 kPa, φ* = 0.24 ± 0.05 rad (liver)., Conclusion: wMRE reveals highly dispersive G* properties of the brain and liver, and our results suggest that the influence of large-scale structures such as fluid-filled vessels and sulci on the MRE-measured parameters increases at low vibration frequencies. Magn Reson Med 76:1116-1126, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)