P2.27 A ROBUST METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC MEASUREMENTS OF DIAMETER, DISTENSION AND IMT IN HUMANS AND SMALL ANIMALS

Abstract

ARTIC is a new segmentation-based tracking algorithm used to automatically measure diameter, distension and intima media thickness (IMT) in arteries using B-mode ultrasound. ARTIC is initiated with a mark in the center of lumen and can then perform automatic measurements in about 1000 frames/second. To show the robustness and versatility of ARTIC evaluations were made with four different ultrasound scanners, Philips HDI5000, Philips iU22, VisualSonics Vevo 2100 and ULA-OP (Florence University) with different file-formats, including DICOM. The repeatability of automatic measurements of diameter, distension and IMT was evaluated in a) the carotid artery in humans of various age and health and b) the aorta in premature rabbit-pups having a diameter of less than 1 mm. Further the measurements of ARTIC were compared to those of a previously phantom validated method. Finally, differences in measured diameter, distension and IMT when using different scanners were evaluated. The mean diameter of the measurement ranged from 5771–6604 μm (humans) and 768 μm (rabbit pups), the mean distension ranged from 501–861 μm (humans) and 40 μm (rabbit pups) and the mean IMT ranged 543–1011 μm (humans) and 88 μm (rabbit pups). The table shows a summary of the obtained coefficients of variation. The figure shows the diameter and IMT during four cardiac cycles measured with ARTIC. In conclusion ARTIC can be a useful tool to automatically characterize the arterial wall in both humans and small animals.