ULTRASONIC METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SHEAR WAVE PARAMETER ESTIMATION

The invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging method for determining propagation parameters of transient shear wave front, comprising steps of forming transient shear waves in a tissue (5), acquiring ultrasonic image data (S,S*) of the tissue, along image lines (l), during a time delay (TSW) for a transient shear wave front to propagate over a depth (z) in said tissue, estimating the tissue velocity (V) for each line, constructing a tissue velocity image sequence [I(V)] from the ultrasonic data (S,S*) and the tissue velocities (V) on the lines, and deriving the velocities (CSW) of the shear wave front at instants of the sequence. Tissue parameters such as elasticity are then calculated from said front velocity. The invention also relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system having processing means (100, PROCESSING1, PROCESSING2) for carrying out this method. The processing means may be a computer program product having instruction to this end.