3-D Transducer Mounted Shear Wave Absolute Vibro-Elastography: Proof of Concept

Quantitative tissue stiffness characterization using ultrasound (US) has been shown to improve prostate cancer (PCa) detection in multiple studies. Shear wave absolute vibro-elastography (SWAVE) allows quantitative and volumetric assessment of tissue stiffness using external multifrequency excitation. This article presents a proof of concept of a first-of-a-kind 3-D hand-operated endorectal SWAVE system designed to be used during systematic prostate biopsy. The system is developed with a clinical US machine, requiring only an external exciter that can be mounted directly to the transducer. Subsector acquisition of radio frequency (RF) data allows imaging of shear waves with a high effective frame rate (up to 250 Hz). The system was characterized using eight different quality assurance phantoms. Due to the invasive nature of prostate imaging, at this early stage of development, validation of in vivo human tissue was instead carried out by intercostally scanning the livers of $n = 7$ healthy volunteers. The results are compared with 3-D magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and an existing 3-D SWAVE system with a matrix array transducer (M-SWAVE). High correlations were found with MRE (99% in phantoms, 94% in liver data) and with M-SWAVE (99% in phantoms, 98% in liver data).