Elastic modulus estimation of carotid artery using ultrasonic dynamic images (MEとバイオサイバネティックス)

概要

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Many methods for evaluating the degree of arteriosclerosis utilizing the magnitude of systaltic movement of carotid artery have been proposed. The magnitude of carotid systaltic movement depends on the elasticity of surrounding tissues around carotid artery as well as the elasticity of carotid artery itself. Therefore, the degree of arteriosclerosis cannot be estimated accurately only by observing the magnitude of carotid systaltic movement. This paper proposes an estimation method of the elastic modulus of carotid artery by excluding influence of the elasticity of surrounding tissues in order to evaluate the degree of arteriosclerosis. In the proposed method, the systaltic movement of surrounding tissues as well as that of carotid artery is tracked by an optical flow method in ultrasonic B-mode images at the cross section of carotid artery. It is shown that the carotid elastic modulus estimated by the proposed method almost agrees with previous results by measurement using animals and humans.
2009-05-15