| Abstract [eng] |
Atherosclerosis is a chronic and systemic vascular disease, which progression and evolution is tremendously complex and rather unpredictable and the general signs of this illness develop only after the onset of complications: thickening of the intima-media complex, narrowing of the lumen or its thrombosis, and/or loss of elasticity. Nonetheless, it has been proven that mechanical changes (i.e., longitudinal and radial motion of the arterial wall) appear much earlier than significant anatomical changes (i.e., intima-media thickness) of the arterial wall. Furthermore, the clinical investigations have shown a relationship between the arterial stiffness, cardiovascular diseases, and the decrease in longitudinal motion. Nevertheless, an internal source of mechanical deformation or so-called endogenous motion in the tissue induced by heartbeat and vascular activity could be used in the elasticity measurement, methods, based on the endogenous motion detection, are not applied in clinical practice these days. Firstly, these methods should be carefully studied and investigated. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to develop and investigate the ultrasound radiofrequency signals-based algorithm for common carotid artery wall motion simulation, associated with the early diagnosis of atherosclerosis. Computational ultrasound imaging and digital 3D artery model were used for the identification of the accuracy of motion tracking algorithms to detect the endogenous motion. Investigated accuracy of the proposed motion detection algorithms, using simulated common carotid artery ultrasound radiofrequency signals and mean absolute error parameter of estimated and theoretical motion signals, demonstrated the potential for applying the proposed motion detection methods in clinical practice. |
