X-ray elastography: a feasibility study.

We propose a new elastography method based on x-ray imaging. After taking two x-ray tomographic images of the breast-mimicking phantom with applying different compressing pressure to it, we calculated displacement and strain maps from the two images using a non-rigid body image registration. The strain maps showed elasticity characteristics of the phantom medium. We expect that the proposed elastography method can be incorporated into breast tomosynthesis or breast CT systems to detect early stage breast cancers.