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Abstract
We describe a new method for quantitative imaging of strain and elastic modulus distributions
in soft tissues. The method is based on external tissue compression, with subsequent
computation of the strain profile along the transducer axis, which is derived from
cross-correlation analysis of pre- and post-compression A-line pairs. The strain profile
can then be converted to an elastic modulus profile by measuring the stresses applied
by the compressing device and applying certain corrections for the nonuniform stress
field. We report initial results of several phantom and excised animal tissue experiments
which demonstrate the ability of this technique to quantitatively image strain and
elastic modulus distributions with good resolution, sensitivity and with diminished
speckle. We discuss several potential clinical uses of this technique.