Improvement of accuracy in ultrasonic measurement of luminal surface roughness of carotid arterial wall by deconvolution filtering

摘要: The diagnosis of early-stage atherosclerosis is important for preventing cardiovascular diseases such as a stroke or heart attack. main cause atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis, the luminal surface arterial wall becomes rough because detachment endothelial cells and degeneration internal elastic layer. Therefore, it would be useful if minute roughness carotid observed in early stage can measured noninvasively by ultrasonography. conventional ultrasonography, axial resolution B-mode image depends on ultrasonic pulse length 150 µm (at 10 MHz) constructed using amplitude RF echo. However, thickness an cell covering 10–20 µm. cannot from image. We have realized transcutaneous measurement about phased-tracking method. lateral spatial degrades owing to point spread function (PSF) diameter beam finite. present study, we proposed method improving estimation Wiener filter suppress effect PSF ultrasound system employed. was validated phantom then applied vivo arteries.