Image processing method for risk assessment of atherosclerotic plaque rupture

摘要

The invention relates to an image processing method for estimating a risk of atheroma plaque breakage, that includes the step of receiving (40) a so-called elastogram image representing the inner deformation resulting from the compression of an analyzed blood vessel tissue based on blood pressure, the step of pre-segmenting (50) the elastogram in order to obtain a pre-segmented image including a plurality of areas, and the step of calculating an elasticity image (60) representing the elasticity of at least one region of the elastogram, the region corresponding to an area selected among the plurality of areas of the pre-segmented image, and the elasticity image enabling the user to estimate the risk of atheroma plaque breakage, wherein said method is characterized in that: the pre-segmentation is carried out while considering the tissue as being a non-compressible elastic solid in order to determine the Young modulus gradient as equal to the sum of the Lagrange multiplier gradient and of a space depending vector, and in that the pre-segmentation includes determining the outlines of each area in the plurality of areas using said space depending vector.