Application of dynamic elastography to the mechanical characterization of viscoelastic soft media via torsional, longitudinal, and transverse shear waves

Abstract

The field of biomedical engineering has gained importance in assessing soft tissue elasticity for diagnosing and monitoring diseases. Traditionally, clinicians have relied on manual palpation, which is subjective and qualitative. Dynamic elastography, a noninvasive medical imaging technique, measures the elasticity of various soft tissues by generating, detecting, and tracking shear waves (SWs). The thesis contributes to the advancement of dynamic elastography techniques and their potential applications in refining diagnostics, and improving our understanding of SW propagation in biological media. All of the results have been supported by rheological models, whose parameters have been interpreted with respect to the microstructure and their relationship with attenuation and frequency. However, the understanding of the relationship between microscale and macroscale mechanical properties remains limited, posing challenges in predicting mechanical behavior solely based on microstructure.