This paper introduces a 2-D strain imaging technique based on minimizing a cost function using dynamic programming (DP) The cost function incorporates similarity of echo amplitudes, displacement continuity Since tissue deformations are smooth, the incorporation of the smoothness into the cost function results in reduced decorrelation noise As a result, the method generates high-quality strain images of freehand palpation elastography with up to 10% compression, showing that the method is more robust to signal decorrelation (caused by scatterer motion in high axial compression, nonaxial motions of the probe) in comparison to the standard correlation techniques The method operates in less than 1 s, is thus also potentially suitable for real time elastography