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KMID : 1144120140040030292
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Biomedical Engineering Letters
2014 Volume.4 No. 3 p.292 ~ p.300
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Strain ratio vs. modulus ratio for the diagnosis of breast cancer using elastography
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Kwon Hyock-Ju
Shin Bong-Hun
Gopaul Darindra
Fienberg Samantha
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Abstract
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Purpose: In elastography, strain ratio is commonly used as an indicator to detect the malignancy of the lesion, based on palpation principle that pathological lesions are normally stiffer than benign tissues. We investigated the validity of strain ratio by comparing it with modulus ratio which is a true indicator of the malignancy.
Methods: Strains inside the lesion and the tissue under compressive loading were predicted by Eshelby’s solution which is an analytical method to derive the elastic field within and around an ellipsoidal inclusion embedded in the matrix. Analytical results were also confirmed with finite element analysis (FEA) simulations.
Results: The analyses using Eshelby’s solution demonstrated that strain ratio not only significantly underestimates the modulus ratio which is the true indicator of malignancy, but also varies with other factors such as the shape and the stiffness of the inclusion. Based on the results from Eshelby’s solution and FEA, we proposed a surface regression model as a cubic polynomial function of strain ratio and ellipticity of the lesion to predict the modulus ratio.
Conclusions: The proposed model has been successfully applied to gelatin phantoms mimicking breast cancers and clinical ultrasound images of human breasts containing different types of lesions. This study suggests the potential of the modulus ratio predicted by the model as a new indicator in differentiating malignant tumors from benign lesions.
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KEYWORD
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Eshelby’s solution, Elastography, Breast cancer, Elastogram
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