Ultrasonic and elasticity imaging to model disease-induced changes in soft-tissue structure

Ultrasonic techniques are presented for the study of soft biological tissue structure and function. Changes in echo waveforms caused by microscopic variations in the mechanical properties of tissue can reveal disease mechanism, in vivo. On a larger scale, elasticity imaging describes the macroscopic mechanical properties of soft tissues. We summarize the approach and present preliminary results for studying disease-induced changes in renal tissue using these two acoustic imaging techniques.