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Ultrasound-based automatic 3D modulography for atherosclerotic carotid artery plaques
Koen Franse, Jan-Willem Muller, Marc van Sambeek, Richard Lopata
Session: Poster Session 1 (Even numbers)
Session starts: Thursday 26 January, 16:00
Presentation starts: 16:00
Koen Franse (PhD student TU Eindhoven)
Jan-Willem Muller (PhD student TU Eindhoven)
Marc van Sambeek (Vascular Surgeon Catharina Hospital Eindhoven)
Richard Lopata (Associate Professor TU Eindhoven)
Abstract:
1. Introduction
Currently invasive surgery on atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid artery is performed in case of stenosis >70% [1]. However, retrospective studies show that this intervention is only needed in one out of six patients. Mechanical modelling of the arterial wall with patient-specific local material parameters can improve clinical decision making by characterizing the plaque’s morphology and prevent rupture. This study presents a 3D inverse finite element (FE) algorithm that can locally reconstruct the heterogeneous characterization of the arterial plaque based on non-invasive ultrasound (US).
2. Methods
The input for the inverse FE algorithm is strain data, which can be obtained by performing strain imaging on US data. In this study, cross-sectional 2D three-angle plane wave US acquisitions are simulated using the k-wave toolbox [2]. The simulations are based on a 3D FE model of a plaque containing a lipid pool and calcifications.
The inverse FE workflow initiates with a homogeneous plaque model. The ratio between the FE stress and the input strain is used to compute the apparent Young’s modulus (AYM) locally [3]. This parameter is further optimized to minimize the error between the input strain and the iteratively computed FE strain.
The resulting material parameters are compared with those in the ground-truth FE model for two cases: the inverse reconstruction based on FE strain input data and the reconstruction based on US simulation strain imaging data.
3. Results & Discussion
Using FE strain data as input, the 3D inverse algorithm demonstrates the ability to reconstruct the 3D geometry of the plaque, including details of the lipid pool and small calcifications, without prior segmentation. However, using the 2D plane wave US strain imaging data as input, the algorithm is not able to reconstruct local plaque details. The poor performance of the US strain-based reconstruction is due mainly to the lack of precision and resolution in the lateral US strain data. Further research will be aimed at improving this by using more compounded plane wave angles and FE-based regularization methods.
[1]: Leo H Bonati et al., “European Stroke Organization guideline on endarterectomy and stenting for carotid artery stenosis”, European Stroke Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, I-XLVII (2021)
[2]: B. E. Treeby and B. T. Cox, “k-Wave: MATLAB toolbox for the simulation and reconstruction of photoacoustic wave fields”, J. Biomed. Opt. Vol. 15 No. 2, 021314 (2010)
[3]: J. Porée, B et al., “Noninvasive Vascular Modulography Method for Imaging the Local Elasticity of Atherosclerotic Plaques: Simulation and In Vitro Vessel Phantom Study”, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Vol. 64, No. 12, 1805-1817 (2017)