A model-based approach to investigate the effect of elevated interstitial fluid pressure on strain elastography.

A model-based approach to investigate the effect of elevated interstitial fluid pressure on strain elastography. Phys Med Biol. 2018 Oct 24;63(21):215011 Authors: Islam MT, Reddy JN, Righetti R Abstract Finite element (FE) modeling provides a useful tool to understand the mechanical behavior of complex tissues, such as cancers, in a variety of testing conditions. Although a number of numerical and analytical models for cancerous tumors are retrievable in the literature, none of these models is capable of completely describing the behavior of a cancer embedded in a normal tissue in the conditions typical for an ultrasound elastography experiment. In this paper, we first design and implement a realistic FE model of the mechanical behavior of a cancer embedded in a normal tissue under ultrasound elastography testing conditions. In addition to the commonly used tissue mechanical properties, for the cancer, elevated interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) is incorporated in the model. IFP is a parameter of great clinical significance, but it is not typically considered in elastographic models of tumors. The developed model is then used to thoroughly study the effect of IFP on the axial, lateral and volumetric strains inside the tumor. The results of this study demonstrate that the presence of the IFP affects both the temporal and spatial distributions of the axial, lateral, volumetric strains and related elastographic parameters. Thus, these re...
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research