Shear wave generation with steered ultrasound push beams

Elasticity imaging is becoming established as a means of assisting in diagnosis of certain diseases. Shear wave-based methods have been developed to perform elasticity measurements in soft tissue. We propose a novel method that uses steered push beams (SPB) that can be applied for beam formation for shear wave generation. In SPB methods we use unfocused beams that are steered at specific angles. The interaction of these steered beams causes shear waves to be generated in more of a random nature than conventional methods. We designed an optimization scheme for designing different configurations. We tested these configurations in elastic phantoms along and compared with results with measurements made with Comb push Ultrasound Shear Elastography (CUSE). The SPB method provides a flexible method to obtain shear wave speed maps with high depth-of-field.