[Development of the ultrasonic characterization of biological tissue elasticity]

The variation of tissue elasticity or stiffness is related with diseases of tissue, so the characterization of tissue elasticity is important to diagnosis. There are four methods for ultrasonic characterization of tissue elasticity: imaging inspection techniques, vibration velocity measurements, quasi-static strain measurements and parametric methods. The theories of the method of vibration velocity measurements and the method of quasi-static strain measurements and their new developments are discussed in this paper. The applications and the problems of this technique are discussed also.