Structure and Mechanical Properties of Soft Tissues during Selected Pathological Processes

Abstract

Pathological process often modifies the structure of the soft tissue and can lead changes of mechanical properties. The regularity of this relationship has already been used in the elastography and currently it is applied in medical diagnostic. Tissue stiffness can be identified by a quick measurement but more accurate details can be obtained only by biopsy. Studies, presented in a scientific literature, focus only on pathological stiffness or consider only changes in biochemical structure. These researches revealed two very important components of those modifications-elastin and collagen. Soft tissues are multicomponent, inhomogeneous and anisotropic structures. Their functionality depends on complicated processes on molecular level. Probably the individual components of the tissue can effect on each other. They may promote creation of processes, which can participate in modifications of elasticity. For this reason, it is very important to relate changes on the structural level with mechanical properties. This information can be very helpful in diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue disease.