FOCUS: FUNCTIONAL IMAGING - ULTRASOUND

DOI

10.1016/j.artres.2013.10.387How to use a DOI?

Abstract

Introduction: Intravascular Elastography has proven to be a sensitive tool to identify vulnerable plaques in coronary arteries. It is a technique to assess the deformation (strain) due to the pulsatile blood pressure of the vessel wall and plaque. However, for screening asymptomatic patients, a noninvasive technique is required. Using linear array transducers, the carotid artery can be imaged noninvasively. However, in contrast to intravascular ultrasound catheters, the ultrasound field is not co-aligned with the radial strain in the arterial wall for cross-sectional imaging. We developed a compounding technique to circumvent this problem and to reconstruct radial strain images of the carotid artery and plaques.

Methods: Linear array transducers are capable of emitting the ultrasound field under different angles. By compounding strain images acquired under different angles, the radial strain can be determined for the full cross-section of the carotid artery. The method was validated using phantoms of arteries with and without plaque. In vivo data was acquired in patients before an endarterectomy procedure was performed allowing validation of the technique by histology.

Results: Using the noninvasive elastographic compounding technique, high quality elastograms of arterial tissues and plaque can be obtained. Phantom experiments revealed that the quality of these elastograms is similar to that of elastograms obtained with intravascular elastography. Receiver operating curves demonstrate high correlations with histologically determined vulnerable plaque features. For the detection of lipid content and superficial macrophages sensitivities and specificities were 80% & 70%, and 100% & 100%, respectively.

Conclusions: Noninvasive vascular elastography using compounding is a promising technique to assess vulnerable plaque features in patients.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license.

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chris L. de Korte
AU  - Hendrik H.G. Hansen
PY  - 2013
DA  - 2013/11/11
TI  - FOCUS: FUNCTIONAL IMAGING - ULTRASOUND
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 110
EP  - 110
VL  - 7
IS  - 3-4
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2013.10.387
DO  - 10.1016/j.artres.2013.10.387
ID  - deKorte2013
ER  -