Muscle elastography: forces, fibers, fractals and fractional calculus

Dynamic elastography imaging, whether based on Magnetic Resonance or Ultrasound modalities, attempts to reconstruct quantitative maps of the viscoelastic properties of biological tissue, properties that are altered by disease and injury. Reconstruction often assumes isotropy and homogeneity and neglects boundary conditions. Skeletal muscle violates all these assumptions, posing challenges and opportunities for developing better imaging biomarkers. These challenges are articulated and novel methods to address them are proposed.