Viscoelastic property detection by elastic displacement NMR measurements.

An attempt was undertaken to analyze the phase changes in the transverse magnetization component, M[perp], determined in NMR response by an elastic wave in the presence of two pulses with opposite magnetic field gradient directions. The obtained theoretical results indicate that such changes are significant in biologic tissues. Their measurement by NMR opens up new possibilities for detecting the displacement and some viscoelastic properties such as the adiabatic compressibility coefficient, amplitude wave damping coefficient, frequency and dispersion strength of elastic relaxation processes, etc. The method may be useful in basic applied research and in medical diagnosis of some diseases resulting in the variation of elastic properties of biological tissues, eg, atherosclerosis.