Patent ID: 7905835

Claim:
A method for assessing mechanical properties of an elastic material using an ultrasound imaging device having an ultrasound transmitter, an ultrasound receiver configured to receive reflected ultrasound waves reflected from a region of interest of the elastic material and to convert the received ultrasound waves into image data, a processor configured to analyze the image data, and a display configured to show results from said analysis of the image data, said method comprising: obtaining a first volumetric ultrasound data set of the elastic material while the elastic material is in a first state of compression and obtaining a second volumetric ultrasound data set of the elastic material while the elastic material is in the second state of compression; selecting first ultrasound image data of a first hypersurface region of interest (ROI) from the first ultrasound volume data set and selecting second ultrasound image data of a second hypersurface ROI from the second ultrasound volume data set; comparing the first ultrasound image data and the second ultrasound image data to determine motion within the elastic material; and determining whether out of ROI motion of the elastic material is less than a predetermined amount, and, if not, and if an allowed number of iterations has not been met, then changing an orientation of at least one of said ROIs and iterating a corresponding said selection of ultrasound image data, as well as iterating said analyzing and comparing the first ultrasound image data and the second ultrasound image data and said test of out of ROI motion, or otherwise, displaying an indication of motion resulting from compression within the elastic material.