[Magnetic resonance elastography 2.0: high resolution imaging of soft tissue elasticity, viscosity and pressure]

Elastography is the image-based measurement of the viscoelastic properties of soft biological tissues. Diseases such as fibrosis, tumors, or hypertension significantly alter the mechanical properties of tissues. These changes are highly sensitive to manual palpation. This article reviews new methods of magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and their potential clinical applications. Furthermore, this article discusses pilot studies investigating pressure- and compression-sensitive MRE of the heart, the liver, and the brain. New developments in three-dimensional multifrequency MRE have the potential for generating highly resolved maps of viscoelastic tissue properties. Such maps are a new source of radiological information that sensitively reflects the micromechanical structure of a biological tissue.).