Elsevier, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 4(40), p. 675-684, 2014
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2013.10.023
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Within the field of “imaging the biomechanical properties of tissues,” a number of approaches analyze shear wave propagation initiated by a short radiation force push. Unfortunately, it is experimentally observed that the displacement vs. time curves in lossy tissues are rapidly damped and distorted in ways that confound any simple tracking approach. This paper addresses the propagation, decay, and distortion of pulses in lossy and dispersive media, in order to derive closed form analytic expressions for the propagating pulses. The theory identifies key terms that drive the distortion and broadening of the pulse. Furthermore, the approach taken is not dependent on any particular viscoelastic model of tissue, but instead takes a general first order approach to dispersion. Examples with a Gaussian beam pattern and realistic dispersion parameters are given along with general guidelines for identifying the features of the distorting wave that are the most compact.