Performance of magnetic resonance elastography measuring the minimal displacements of the tissue generated by external oscillation and its clinical application.

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The purpose of this study was to estimate tissue elasticity using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and to try its clinical application. We prepared a tissue-like phantom with two different stiffness. External oscillation generated minimum displacements of the phantom and phase contrast image captured different shear waves propagation and shear modulus of phantom were well correlated with stiffness of phantom. Ex vivo pig liver and pathology generated by laser ablation were used for animal study. Shear wave propagation through animal liver were shown and ablated tissue was stiffer than non-ablated tissue on MRE. Shear modulus of ex vivo human cirrhotic liver was different from non-cirrhotic liver. Cirrhotic liver was stiffer than non-cirrhotic liver because cirrhotic liver had fibrosis. We also measured elasticity of resected human liver tumor. Cholangiocellular carcinoma with massive fibrosis was stiffer than surrounding liver and hepatocellular carcinoma was softer than surrounding liver using palpation and external compression apparatus. Elastic modull of tumors estimated by MRE technique were correlated with palpation and measured elastic value. MRE had a potential to noninvasively estimate human's elastic properties and to be a new diagnostic tool.