Characterizing expansion and stiffening of the canine liver with increasing hepatic pressure

Hepatic venous pressure is increased in advancing liver disease and is considered the primary source of of complications (such as variceal bleeding and ascites). Measurement of clinically significant increases in portal pressure is important for managing liver disease and is performed using the invasive method, hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG). We have previously reported that ARFI based shear wave speed (SWS) estimate increases with increasing hepatic venous pressure require an underlying tissue deformation. However, the mechanical behavior of the liver during pressurization is not well understood. In this work, tissue deformation during hepatic pressurization was tracked using successively acquired 3-D B-mode volumes and compared with concurrently accrued SWS datasets.