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Asked by Jimmy dean to Christopher, Dan, Jen, Mohan, Sarah on 6 Mar 2017.
Question: What is elastography
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Mohan K answered on 6 Mar 2017:
Elastography is the ability to measure the ‘stiffness’ of materials. In the medical context, we can use ultrasound machines (like those you see being used on pregnant women) to measure the stiffness of soft tissues.
Tumours for example, are often stiffer than other tissues. The stiffness of tissue can also differentiate between diseased and non-diseased liver, and can help us gauge the extent of the disease.
It is measured in very simple terms by ‘pinging’ the tissue with a sound wave and seeing how it reacts.
There is also an equivalent technique in MRI but I don’t know much about that!
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Daniel Fovargue answered on 6 Mar 2017:
I will follow up on what Mohan said, since I work on MRI elastography 🙂
Like he said, we use elastography to figure out the hardness (or stiffness) of tissue. If you feel a muscle while you flex it, then you can feel the muscle tissue getting harder. Its the same property that you are feeling, that elastography measures.
As Mohan said, the liver can change in hardness when it is diseased. Another common example is cancer. Tumours are usually harder than the other tissue around them. In fact, many people discover tumours just by touch.
In MRI elastography, we put someone in the MRI machine and then vibrate part of them. If we are curious about their liver, then we press something against them that vibrates, near the liver. Its like when your phone vibrates but a bit stronger.
Then using the MRI we can see the sound waves from the vibration moving through the liver. Now we just have to solve a really interesting maths problem so that we can figure out the hardness of the liver, from the images of the sound waves.
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Jen Dennis answered on 6 Mar 2017:
Phew, I’m glad Dan already got in there to answer this one as I really have no idea!
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