ABSTRACT
In this chapter, some indirect methods for the measurement of tissue elasticity are introduced. As the name suggests, indirect methods enable the measurement of tissue elasticity by the use of some probing factors that reect the tissues’ biomechanical properties. ese methods can be classied into two categories: (1) detection of the resonant frequency change of a probe when contacting tissues with dierent elasticity (Omata and Terunuma 1992), and (2) detection of shear wave propagation in tissues, including holographic wave pattern monitoring on the tissue surface (Avenhaus et al. 2001) and propagation speed measurement in tissue to indicate its elasticity (Sarvazyan et al. 1998). Recently, methods using the shear wave propagation speed have developed rapidly, and a number of products for dierent purposes are now available. Details of each method are introduced in the following sections.
