ABSTRACT

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4.1 Introduction Ultrasound is a commonly used imaging modality that is still under active development with great potential for future breakthroughs although it has been used for decades. One such breakthrough is the recent commercialization of methods to estimate and image the (relative and absolute) elastic properties of tissues. Most leading clinical ultrasound system manufacturers offer some form of elasticity imaging software on at least one of their ultrasound systems. The most common elasticity imaging method is based on a surrogate of manual palpation.