Elasticity reconstruction for ultrasound elastography using a radial compression: an inverse approach

To reduce the inherent mechanical artifacts in the strain images, many groups have investigated solutions to the inverse problem in elastography. However, in prostate elastography or intravascular elastography where the compression direction is radial, the inverse problem has not been studied thoroughly. In this paper, an iterative approach is proposed to reconstruct tissue elasticity for ultrasound elastography using a radial compression. The method is based upon the stress-strain relations in the polar coordinates. Computer simulations in an intravascular model are performed to illustrate the feasibility of this method in reducing the mechanical artifacts of the strain images. The reconstructed elasticity error and the contrast-transfer efficiency (CTE) as a function of the iteration number show that the inverse approach converges with a few iterations.