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Abstract #2528

Measured Elasticity and Its Frequency Dependence Are Sensitive to Tissue Microarchitecture in MR Elastography

Simon CHATELIN1, Simon LAMBERT1, Lauriane JUGE1, Xing CAI2, Sven Peter NASHOLM2, Valrie VILGRAIN1, Bernard E. Van BEERS1, Xavier MAITRE3, Lynne E. BILSTON4, Bojan GUZINA5, Sverre HOLM2, Ralph SINKUS1

1U773-CRB3, INSERM, Paris, France; 2Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; 3UMR 8081-CNRS, Universit Paris-Sud, Orsay, France; 4Neuroscience Research Australia, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia; 5Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States


Understanding the effects of micro-obstacles on wave propagation is an essential part when trying to extract micro-structural information from MR-Elastography (MRE) data from tissue abnormalities such as small metastases or neovascularization. To date, the effects of wave scattering on mechanical properties measurements remain poorly understood. Nevertheless, scattering plays a major role in linking the architectural properties of a biological tissue to its mechanical properties measured by MRE. In this study, the influence of microparticle size distribution on wave scattering frequency dependence is investigated from a theoretical and numerical approach. This study shows for the first time the feasibility of linking size distribution and stiffness of micro-particles to the macroscopically observed elasticity.