Research on Biomedical Engineering
http://www.rbejournal.periodikos.com.br/article/doi/10.1590/rbeb.2014.013
Research on Biomedical Engineering
Original Article

Atherosclerotic plaque characterization using plaque area variation in IVUS images during compression: a computational investigation

Moraes, Matheus Cardoso; Cardoso, Fernando Mitsuyama; Furuie, Sérgio Shiguemi

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Abstract

Introduction: The rupture of atherosclerotic plaques causes millions of death yearly. It is known that the kind of predominant tissue is associated with its dangerousness. In addition, the mechanical properties of plaques have been proved to be a good parameter to characterize the type of tissue, important information for therapeutic decisions. Methods: Therefore, we present an alternative and simple way to discriminate tissues. The procedure relies on computing an index, the ratio of the plaque area variation of a suspecting plaque, using images acquired with vessel and plaques, pre and post-deformation, under different intraluminal pressure. Numerical phantoms of coronary cross-sections with different morphological aspects, and simulated with a range of properties, were used for evaluation. Results: The outcomes provided by this index and a widely used one were compared, so as to measure their correspondence. As a result, correlations up to 99%, a strong agreement with Bland-Altman and very similar histograms between the two indices, have shown a good level of equivalence between the methods. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that the proposed index discriminates highly lipidic from fibro-lipidic and calcified tissues in many situations, as good as the widely used index, yet the proposed method is much simpler to be computed.

Keywords

Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), Atherosclerosis, Intravascular elastography, Phantoms, Strain map.
5889fbe45d01231a018b4842 rbeb Articles
Links & Downloads

Res. Biomed. Eng.

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