Patent ID: 6176827
Filing Date: 2001-01-23
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A method of detecting elasticity variations in a soft tissue which is subjected to an external compression in a predetermined axial direction comprising:estimating a field of axial displacements in the tissue,determining an elasticity modulus estimator, including an operation for minimizing a distance between an image of a distribution of elementary elasticity moduli, by a Finite Element Model, and the field of axial displacements, andregularizating the solution of the estimator by means of a diagonal matrix (R) whose coefficients [.alpha..sub.ii ](.alpha..sub.ii) are functions of the axial displacements (d.sub.i) which are applied to the respective values of the elementary elasticity moduli (e.sub.i) in order to ensure that these elementary elasticity modulus values remain within a uniform interval which is centered around a mean value which is specific to each elementary elasticity modulus.