Axial displacement tracking in transient elastography using neighboring local minima maxima in radio frequency signals

In order to estimate the shear wave velocity in transient elastography (TE), we proposed an algorithm based on detection of neighboring local minima maxima (MM) of successive RF signals to estimate displacement field. This algorithm is performed since the US acquisition is ultrafast (e.g. PRF 80 kHz) to obtain a local delay inferior than half-period of the RF signal. In this case we reached a high spatial resolution in the elastogram (SR = quarter of wavelength (λ)) with a good SNRe which is helpful for thin media (few mm) investigation such as the skin. Furthermore, the elastogram quality is linked only to acoustic SNR and anymore to windowing parameters.