Improved diagnosis of breast tumor by combining ultrasound elastography and tissue characterization - Phantom based analysis

Abstract

Many lesions remain undetected in normal ultrasound B mode imaging of cancerous tissues because of their isoechoic nature and poor contrast. Imaging of the elastic properties of tissue provides new information which is correlated with tissue pathology. A quantitative analysis of the improvement in the diagnosis of the tumor by combining the ultrasound B mode imaging and elastography is carried out. Quantification is based on the textural parameters measured from the ultrasound B mode image and strain measured from the elastogram. Polyacrylamide gel based tissue mimicking phantoms were used for the analysis. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.