Single- and Multiple- Track Location Shear Wave and Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging: Matched Comparison of Contrast, CNR, and Resolution

Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging and shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) use the dynamic response of tissue to impulsive mechanical stimulus to characterize local elasticity. A variant of conventional, multiple track location SWEI (MTL-SWEI), denoted single track location SWEI (STL-SWEI) offers the promise of creating speckle-free shear wave images. This work compares the three imaging modalities using a high push and track beam density combined acquisition sequence to image inclusions of different sizes and contrasts. STL-SWEI is shown to have significantly higher CNR than MTL-SWEI, allowing for operation at higher resolution. ARFI and STL-SWEI perform similarly in the larger inclusions, with STL-SWEI providing better visualization of small targets ≤2.5 mm in diameter. The processing of each modality introduces different trade-offs between smoothness and resolution of edges and structures; these are discussed in detail.