A LOW-COST MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR THE 3-D EVALUATION OF CAROTID PLAQUES BASED ON ULTRASOUND IMAGES

摘要

The paper describes an improved low-cost add-on measurement system for the 3-D analysis of carotid arteries. The system locates in the 3-D space the contours of vessel walls extracted from a series of 2-D acquisitions, thanks to the measurement of the geometrical parameters of the ultrasonic probe positions and orientations. Features of the proposed system include the possibility to realize freehand measurements, to work with the desired number of images and to process both normal B-mode and Power-angio images. In the paper, the realized prototype will be described and its operation will be detailed and characterized both for the software and the hardware prototype.