A Tensor Approach to Elastography Analysis and Visualization

Elastography measures the elastic properties of soft tissues using principally ultrasound (US) or magnetic resonance (MR) signals. The elastic behavior of tissues can be analyzed with tensor signal processing. In this work, we propose an analysis of elastography through the deformation tensor and its decomposition into both strain and vorticity tensors. The vorticity gives information about the rotation of the inclusions (simulated tumors) that might be helpful in the discrimination between malign and benign tumors without using biopsy. The tensor strain field visualizes in one image the standard scalar parameters that are usually represented separately in elastography. By using this technique physicians would have complementary information. In addition, it offers them the possibility of extracting new discriminant and useful parameters related to the elastic behavior of tissues. Although clinical validation is needed, synthetic experiments from finite element and ultrasound simulations present reliable results.