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Analytic modeling of breast elastography
Author(s) -
Liu H. T.,
Sun L. Z.,
Wang G.,
Vannier M. W.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.1599953
Subject(s) - micromechanics , elastography , stiffness , breast cancer , elastic modulus , inverse problem , biomedical engineering , ultrasound , materials science , medicine , radiology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , algorithm , cancer , composite number , composite material
The elastic moduli of tumors change during their pathological evolution. Elastographic imaging has potential for detecting and characterizing cancers by mapping the stiffness distribution in tissues. In this paper a micromechanics‐based analytical method was developed to detect the location, size, and elastic modulus of a tumor mass embedded in a symmetric two‐dimensional breast tissue. A closed‐form solution for the strain elastograms (forward problem) was derived. A computational algorithm for the inverse problem was developed for the detection, localization, and characterization of a heterogeneous mass embedded in a breast tissue. Numerical examples were presented to evaluate the proposed method's performance. The detectability of a tumor mass was estimated with respect to lesion location, size, and modulus contrast ratio. It was shown that the micromechanics theory provides a powerful tool for the diagnosis of breast cancer.