VALIDATION OF A HETEROGENEOUS PLAQUE ULTRASOUND PHANTOMS USING VIRTUAL HISTOLOGIC COLOURIZED PIXEL DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS

摘要

BACKGROUND: The majority of cardiovascular events are caused by soft, neovascularized plaque lesions thought to be vulnerable to rupture. In vascular ultrasound, tissue composition analysis and plaque echogenicity are two techniques used to detect characteristics of plaque vulnerability. Pixel Distribution Analysis (PDA) is an example of such a method that uses gray scale values associated with specific tissue types, and has been validated against human histologic samples. The development of a robust phantom model is a key step to further test and develop experimental methods for investigating vulnerable plaque. We have previously developed and reported a density based ultrasound phantom of homogeneous plaque mimics. This study aims to create a carotid artery phantom model of heterogeneous plaque composed of known combinations of various tissue types and to validate this phantom against the PDA method.