Shear wave elastography is a technique whereby the stiffness properties of soft tissues are assessed from the propagation of shear waves, which can be measured with utrasound or MRI. We speculate that the stiffness of soft tissues as tumours or the brain is not only determined by the stiffness of the extracellular matrix material, but also by the fluid pressure within the interstitial space. If this is correct, elastography may provide an indirect way to assess the interstitial fluid pressure in tumours or the intracranial pressure in the brain.
The aim of this thesis is to explore the relation between shear wave speed and the interstitial fluid pressure in a combined experimental/computational study. The student will, on the one hand, develop an experimental set-up to perform ultrasound shear wave measurements in tissues with varying interstitial pressure. On the other hand, a computational model will be developed that should allow to simulate shear wave propagation in a poro-elastic medium. The model will be developed in COMSOL Multiphysics or in Abaqus.