Lateral resolution in elastography

The factors that control the lateral resolution in elastography were investigated using a simulation study. The lateral resolution was estimated from the simulated axial strain elastograms as the smallest measurable distance between two equally stiff lesions embedded in a homogeneously softer background. The lesions were symmetrically positioned lateral to the center of the target, at the focus of the transducer. Ultrasound (US) systems with different transducer frequencies, bandwidths and f-numbers were simulated. The effects of the ultrasonic parameters, the lateral spacing between adjacent echo signals, the cross-correlation window length, the lesion/background elastic contrast and the lateral motion of scatterers on the estimated lateral resolution were investigated. The results show that the lateral resolution in elastography is proportional to the beamwidth of the US system used to acquire the data, and is on the same order as the sonographic lateral resolution.