[Sonoelastography in daily clinical routine]

In the daily clinical routine characterization of focal lesions using native B‑mode classical ultrasound and color Doppler can be difficult or insufficient; therefore, additional diagnostic information must be taken into consideration.

Standard radiological methods in the daily clinical routine include native B‑mode ultrasound and color Doppler ultrasound.

Using sonoelastography it is possible to evaluate and characterize tissue properties and focal lesions regarding their stiffness to acquire additional information on a noninvasive basis.

Sonoelastography enables the differentiation between benign and malignant lesions especially in organs that can be easily evaluated using ultrasound. This particularly includes the liver, the thyroid gland, the breasts and the testicles. Regarding the liver, sonoelastography techniques can also be used for evaluation of the tissue flexibility in the diagnostics of fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Nowadays, elastography is implemented into every modern ultrasound system and has been established as a supplementary examination technique to the conventional ultrasound techniques.

Sonoelastography should be used in cases with unclear findings as an additional noninvasive tool for the differentiation between benign and malignant lesions.