Forward and inverse viscoelastic wave scattering by irregular inclusions for shear wave elastography

Inversion methods in shear wave elastography use simplifying assumptions to recover the mechanical properties of soft tissues. Consequently, these methods suffer from artifacts when applied to media containing strong stiffness contrasts, and do not provide a map of the viscosity. In this work, the shear wave field recorded inside and around an inclusion was used to estimate the viscoelastic properties of the inclusion and surrounding medium, based on an inverse problem approach assuming local homogeneity of both media. An efficient semi-analytical method was developed to model the scattering of an elastic wave by an irregular inclusion, based on a decomposition of the field by Bessel functions and on a decomposition of the boundaries as Fourier series. This model was validated against finite element modeling. Shear waves were experimentally induced by acoustic radiation force in soft tissue phantoms containing stiff and soft inclusions, and the displacement field was imaged at a high frame rate using plane wave imaging. A nonlinear least-squares algorithm compared the model to the experimental data and adjusted the geometrical and mechanical parameters. The estimated shear storage and loss moduli were in good agreement with reference measurements, as well as the estimated inclusion shape. This approach provides an accurate estimation of geometry and viscoelastic properties for a single inclusion in a homogeneous background in the context of radiation force elastography. (C) 2017 Acoustical Society of America.