Comparison between 3 D Supersonic Shear Wave Elastography and Magnetic Resonance Elastography : a preliminary experimental study

Ultrasound Supersonic Shear Wave Elastography (SSWE) as well as Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) allow accessing the mechanical properties of human tissues. SSWE is usually performed using a 2D probe. 3D SSWE is now available but needs to be validated. We compared 3D SSWE with both 2D SSWE and MRE which is inherently 3D on a breast phantom. We found that 3D SSWE is reproducible and provides elasticity estimates comparable to those obtained with the validated 2D SSWE. We also showed that 3D SSWE and MRE exhibit quite different elasticity moduli, but they reveal similar qualitative trends in the phantom. Although no relationship could be drawn between the two modalities, this study provides a first basis for comparison and a guide for potential improvements. Index Terms Biomechanics, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Ultrasound, Elastography