Matthew Mcgarry1, Irina Perreard2,
Adam Jeffry Pattison1, Elijah van Houten3, John Weaver2,
Keith Paulsen1
1Thayer School of Engineering,
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, United States; 2Department of
Radiology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States; 3Department
of Mechanical Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New
Zealand
This
work demonstrates the improvements in in-vivo breast shear modulus
reconstruction gained through considering the effects of viscoelasticity in a
model-based, optimization driven MR elastography algorithm. Three cases with
12 reconstructions are presented where increased shear modulus in the region
of a malignant tumor is apparent using a viscoelastic material model. It is
shown that using an undamped linear elastic model produces inconclusive
results. The improvements are due to a reduction in the model-data mismatch
by using a viscoelastic model to fit tissue, which is known to have a
significant viscous component.