Detection of mild traumatic brain injury in rodent models using shear wave elastography: preliminary studies.

Objectives: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause adverse physiologic changes in fluid content within the brain, which may lead to changes in tissue elasticity (eg, stiffness). This study evaluated the ability of ultrasonic shear wave elastography to observe these changes in the brain after TBI in vivo.

Methods: Mice and rats received a mild TBI or sham surgery and were imaged acutely or 24 hours after injury using shear wave elastography, and the hemispheric stiffness values were compared.

Evidence of changes in brain tissue stiffness after ischemic stroke derived from ultrasound-based elastography.

Objectives: Ischemia, edema, elevated intracranial pressure, and reduced blood flow can occur in the brain as a result of ischemic stroke, including contralateral to the stroke via a process known as diaschisis. In this study, ultrasound elastography, an imaging process sensitive to the stiffness of tissue, including its relative fluid content, was used to study changes in the stiffness of individual cerebral hemispheres after transient ischemic injury.

Methods: Elastographic images of mouse brains were collected 24 and 72 hours after middle cerebral artery occlusion.