Classification of atherosclerotic carotid plaques using morphological analysis on ultrasound images

摘要

The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of multilevel binary and gray scale morphological analysis in the assessment of atherosclerotic carotid plaques. Ultrasound images were recorded from 137 asymptomatic and 137 symptomatic plaques (Stroke, Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA), Amaurosis Fugax (AF)). We carefully develop the clinical motivation behind our approach. We do this by relating the proposed L-images, M-images and H-images in terms of the clinically established hypoechoic, isoechoic and hyperechoic classification. Normalized pattern spectra were computed for both a structural, multilevel binary morphological model, and a direct gray scale morphology model. From the plots of the average pattern spectra, it is clear that we have significant differences between the symptomatic and asymptomatic spectra. Here, we note that the morphological measurements appear to be in agreement with the clinical assertion that symptomatic plaques tend to have large lipid cores while the asymptomatic plaques tend to have small lipid cores.