Detection of differential tissue modulus using detection of differential rate of decorrelation

Initial screening of breast cancer is usually performed using finger-based palpation. We seek to augment the palpation process by associating palpated lesions with lesions detected via image processing applied to the ultrasound image. As the transducer is scanned in the elevational direction over the breast, with a slight pressure into the tissue, lesions with high elastic-modulus will move differently with respect to the surrounding tissue. Thus, we hypothesize that we can detect a high-elastic modulus region by comparing the rate of speckle decorrelation for various regions of the image plane. The potential viability of the technique is verified using both simulated speckle data and phantom (in vitro) data.