Quality control of elastography measurements – influencing factors and pitfalls

Purpose: To evaluate the correctness of shear wave measurements of different vendors and scanheads. Material and methods: For comparing different US machines and scan heads we used the 2nd generation elastography phantom of CIRS (039) with 4 different stiffness values from 3.5 kPa (1), 10 kPa (2), 25 kPa (3) and 45 kPa (4) simulating the range from normal liver to severe fibrosis. 3 US machines with up to three scan heads (4 MHz, 6 MHz and 9 MHz) were compared (Siemens S2000 and S3000 with 4C1, 6C1, and 9L4 scan head, Toshiba Applio 500 with 6C1 scan head). In every phantom 5 measurements are done in 2, 4, 6 and…