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heating
cooling
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
10
20
30 40
Temperature (
50
60
70
80
°
C)
FIGURE 14.13
MRE of thermally treated bovine muscle tissue demonstrates a major,
irreversible change in shear stiffness as the tissue is heated above 60°C.
the ablation and for shear-wave generation, and assessing tissue stiffness and
coagulation as the tissue is being heated during the procedure itself.
14.7
CONCLUSION
MRE shows great potential for noninvasive
in vivo
determination of mechanical
properties of a variety of tissues. The detection of propagating acoustic waves
has been demonstrated
in vivo
in the breast, brain, and muscle and
ex vivo
in
numerous animal and human tissues. Reconstruction algorithms have been tested
and characterized, and although far from perfect, they yield quantitative measures
of elasticity that clearly demarcate differences between tissue types and identify
tumors as areas of higher stiffness. Challenges remain in pulse sequence design,
delivering sufficient signal to all areas of the body, and improving processing
algorithms to generate more accurate, higher-resolution elasticity and attenuation
maps. We speculate that MRE may prove to be useful in tumor detection, diseased
tissue characterization, and the evaluation of rehabilitation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research has been supported by NIH grants CA75552, CA91959, EB00812,
and EB01981.
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