 | This article needs more reliable medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources. (April 2018) |  |
 | This article needs to be updated. (April 2018) |
| Elastography | |
|---|---|
 Conventional ultrasonography (lower image) and elastography (supersonic shear imaging; upper image) of papillary thyroid carcinoma, a malignant cancer. The cancer (red) is much stiffer than the healthy tissue. | |
| MeSH | D054459 |
Elastography is any of a class of medical imaging modalities that map the elastic properties and stiffness of soft tissue.[1][2] The main idea is that whether the tissue is hard or soft will give diagnostic information about the presence or status of disease. For example, cancerous tumours will often be harder than the surrounding tissue, and diseased livers are stiffer than healthy ones.[1][2][3][4]
The most prominent techniques use ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to make both the stiffness map and an anatomical image for comparison.[citation needed]
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Wellswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Sarvazyan A, Hall TJ, Urban MW, Fatemi M, Aglyamov SR, Garra BS. Overview of elastography–an emerging branch of medical imaging. Current Medical Imaging Reviews, 2011, 7(4):255-282.
- ^ Ophir, J.; Céspides, I.; Ponnekanti, H.; Li, X. (April 1991). "Elastography: A quantitative method for imaging the elasticity of biological tissues". Ultrasonic Imaging. 13 (2): 111–134. doi:10.1016/0161-7346(91)90079-W. PMID 1858217.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Parkerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page).