Microscopic measurement of three-dimensional distribution of tissue viscoelasticity

Elasticity imaging system development has recently yielded practical systems that can be applied in clinical use. To diagnosis disease progression and precisely differentiate tissue types in elasticity images, we must first clarify the quantitative relationship between tissue viscoelasticity and diseases. However, no database for such a relationship has been yet established. From this viewpoint, we are investigating a three-dimensional tissue viscoelasticity microscope for accumulating quantitative data on tissue mechanical properties. We considered measuring the relatively thick tissue samples in order to preserve the microstructure of tissues and thus to avoid changes of tissue mechanical properties. Our proposed microscopic measurement is based on static methods and obtains Young's modulus and hysteresis parameter (HP) as viscoelastic properties of tissues. Results of simulation analysis and experiments demonstrated that our basic system could acquire the three-dimensional distributions of the elastic modulus and HP with reasonable resolution and precision.