Analysis of Atherosclerotic Carotid Lumen Segmentation and Motion Estimation in B – Mode and Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Images

The Stroke is one of the most important causes of death in the world and the leading cause of serious, long-term disability. There is an urgent need for better techniques to diagnose patients at risk of stroke based on the measurements of the intima media thickness (IMT) and the segmentation of the atherosclerotic carotid plaque. The objective of this work was to carry out a comparative evaluation of despeckle filtering on ultrasound images of the carotid artery, and develop a new segmentation system, for detecting the IMT and the borders of common carotid artery of the atherosclerotic plaque in longitudinal ultrasound images of the carotid artery. Combination of BMUS and CEUS can be using. Our method outperforms in segmentation the artery plaque in CCA images. The lsmv despeckle filter can be used for despeckling asymptomatic images include the expert is interested mainly in the plaque composition and texture analysis, are considered. A geometric despeckle filter (gf4d) can be used for despeckling of symptomatic images in identifying the degree of stenosis and the plaque borders. The IMT snakes segmentation results showed that no significant difference was found between the manual and the snakes segmentation measurements. The proposed despeckling and segmentation methods in corporate on a larger number of ultrasound images.The texture analysis of the segmented plaque, providing an automated system for the early diagnosis and the assessment of the risk of stroke.