Why Are Viscosity and Nonlinearity Bound to Make an Impact in Clinical Elastographic Diagnosis? Rus Carlborg, Guillermo Faris, Inas Torres, Jorge Callejas Zafra, Antonio Manuel Melchor, Juan Elastography Soft tissue Nonlinearity Viscoelasticity The contributions by Antonio Gomez, Monica Contreras and Francisca S. Molina are gratefully acknowledged. The adoption of multiscale approaches by the biomechanical community has caused a major improvement in quality in the mechanical characterization of soft tissues. The recent developments in elastography techniques are enabling in vivo and non-invasive quantification of tissues’ mechanical properties. Elastic changes in a tissue are associated with a broad spectrum of pathologies, which stems from the tissue microstructure, histology and biochemistry. This knowledge is combined with research evidence to provide a powerful diagnostic range of highly prevalent pathologies, from birth and labor disorders (prematurity, induction failures, etc.), to solid tumors (e.g., prostate, cervix, breast, melanoma) and liver fibrosis, just to name a few. This review aims to elucidate the potential of viscous and nonlinear elastic parameters as conceivable diagnostic mechanical biomarkers. First, by providing an insight into the classic role of soft tissue microstructure in linear elasticity; secondly, by understanding how viscosity and nonlinearity could enhance the current diagnosis in elastography; and finally, by compounding preliminary investigations of those elastography parameters within different technologies. In conclusion, evidence of the diagnostic capability of elastic parameters beyond linear stiffness is gaining momentum as a result of the technological and imaging developments in the field of biomechanics. 2020-06-10T12:44:18Z 2020-06-10T12:44:18Z 2020-04 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Rus, G., Faris, I. H., Torres, J., Callejas, A., & Melchor, J. (2020). Why Are Viscosity and Nonlinearity Bound to Make an Impact in Clinical Elastographic Diagnosis?. Sensors, 20(8), 2379. [doi:10.3390/s20082379] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62433 doi:10.3390/s20082379 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI