Patent ID: 7444875

Claim:
A method for visualizing shear wave propagation in a medium, the method comprising: (a) introducing a shear wave from a shear wave source into the medium, the shear wave having a shear wave frequency and a shear wave phase velocity; (b) detecting a propagation of the shear wave through the medium by using an ultrasound probe to produce an ultrasound signal; (c) introducing a vibration into the ultrasound signal at a second frequency; (d) from the ultrasound signal having the vibration, deriving a modulation wave which represents a propagation of the shear wave relative to the ultrasound probe, the modulation wave having a modulation wave phase velocity which varies as a difference between the shear wave frequency and the second frequency; and (e) producing an image representing the shear wave propagation from the modulation wave derived in step (d).