Analysis of influencing factors of shear wave elastography of the superficial tissue: A phantom study

Qiyang Chen; Baixue Shi; Yang Zheng; Xiangdong Hu

doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.943844

Analysis of influencing factors of shear wave elastography of the superficial tissue: A phantom study

Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Aug 8:9:943844. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.943844. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Qiyang Chen¹, Baixue Shi¹, Yang Zheng², Xiangdong Hu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ultrasound, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² AML, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Institute of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Shear wave elastography (SWE) is widely used in clinical work. But there is no standard protocol and operation specification for SWE acquisition methods, which impacts the diagnosis and clinical staging. This study aimed to investigate the influence factors of diameter, depth, and stiffness on SWE using different probes at superficial depths and discuss SWE differences with two machines at superficial depths. We performed SWE on two elastic phantoms that each phantom contained six subjects with two stiffness (41.06 ± 4.62 kpa and 57.30 ± 4.31 kpa), three diameters (10, 15, and 18 mm), and two depths (15 and 25 mm). A total of 240 measurements were obtained by using two ultrasound machines (SuperSonic Imagine Aixplorer and Mindray Resona 7) and 4 probes (SL15-4 and SL10-2, L11-3, and L14-5). The measurements were compared among 4 probes, 3 diameters, and 2 depths. There was no significant difference in SWE measurements among the probes from the same machine. The SWE measurements were affected by diameter, and the degree of influence was related to the stiffness. The SWE measurements were unaffected at a 15-25 mm depth range.

Keywords: influencing factors; phantom; shear wave elastography (SWE); superficial; ultrasound.