Noise performance and signal-to-noise ratio of shear strain elastograms.

In this paper, we develop a theoretical expression for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of shear strain elastograms. The previously-developed ideas for the axial strain filter (ASF) and lateral strain filter (LSF) are extended to define the concept of the shear strain filter (SSF). Some of our theoretical results are verified using simulations and phantom experiments. The results indicate that the signal-to-noise ratio of shear-strain elastograms (SNRsse) improves with increasing shear strain and with improvements in system parameters such as the sonographic signal-to-noise ratio (SNRs) beamwidth, center frequency and fractional bandwidth. The results also indicate that the amount of axial strain present along with the shear strain is an important parameter that determines the upper bound on SNRsse. The SNRsse will be higher in the absence of additional deformation due to axial strain.