Patent ID: 7331926

Claim:
An ultrasonic elastography system comprising: a graphic display; an ultrasonic acquisition assembly adapted to provide a set of ultrasonic signals from a plurality of voxels in a region of interest at a plurality of angles through the voxels, the set of ultrasonic signals including a first subset of ultrasonic signals taken with tissue of the region of interest in a first axial compressive state and a corresponding second subset of ultrasonic signals taken with tissue of the region of interest in a second axial compressive state; and a processor receiving the set of ultrasonic signals and executing a stored program to: (i) measure the displacement of each voxel projected along the angle of each of the ultrasonic signals between the first and second compressive states; (ii) analyze the measured displacements at multiple angles for each voxel to determine a displacement for the voxel along a predetermined angle; and (iii) display a graphic representation of the elasticity of the tissue based on displacement of the voxel along the predetermined angle.