A majority of disease conditions from cancer and atherosclerosis to neurodegenerative and orthopedic disorders are accompanied by changes in tissue stiffness. Clinical medicine has long relied on manual palpation of suspected regions to detect tissue stiffness for diagnosis. Imaging modalities such as ultrasound, MRI and OCT can also effectively measure tissue stiffness. Laser speckle rheology (LSR) offers a new, noncontact optical approach. LSR uses an inexpensive laser similar to a common laser pointer to shine laser light on tissue—plus a camera to image speckle patterns reflected from light-scattering particles in the sample.
