An Integrated Approach to Computer-Based Automated Tracing and Its Validation for 200 Common Carotid Arterial Wall Ultrasound Images

Molinari, Filippo; Zeng, Guang; Suri, Jasjit S.

doi:10.7863/jum.2010.29.3.399

Cited by 88 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Complete and more detailed explanations of these two algorithms can be found in our previous papers [6][7][8][9][10]. This comparison can be quite meaningful because the three main characteristics of the techniques are the same: i.e., (1) there is no need for human interaction, (2) they are designed to work in normal as well as pathologic images, and (3) they trace all three profiles of interest: the far adventitial layer, the LI border and the MA interface.…”

Section: Benchmarking Caudles-ef With Existing Automated Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CAUDLES-EF was specifically designed for the IMT measurement of the far (distal) wall of the common carotid artery. In this paper, we also show the characterization of this algorithm in terms of automatic versus human traced segmentation, and we also benchmarked the results with two other completely automatic techniques that we previously developed [6][7][8][9][10]. Our image database consisted of 300 images coming from two different institutions consisting of both normal and pathological arteries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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CAUDLES-EF: Carotid Automated Ultrasound Double Line Extraction System Using Edge Flow

et al. 2011

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The evaluation of the carotid artery wall is essential for the diagnosis of cardiovascular pathologies or for the assessment of a patient's cardiovascular risk. This paper presents a completely user-independent algorithm, which automatically extracts the far double line (lumenintima and media-adventitia) in the carotid artery using an Edge Flow technique based on directional probability maps using the attributes of intensity and texture. Specifically, the algorithm traces the boundaries between the lumen and intima layer (line one) and between the media and adventitia layer (line two). The Carotid Automated Ultrasound Double Line Extraction System based on Edge-Flow (CAUDLES-EF) is characterized and validated by comparing the output of the algorithm with the manual tracing boundaries carried out by three experts. We also benchmark our new technique with the two other completely automatic techniques (CALEXia and CULEXsa) we previously published. Our multi-institutional database consisted of 300 longitudinal Bmode carotid images with normal and pathologic arteries. We compared our current new method with previous methods, and showed the mean and standard deviation for the three methods: CALEXia, CULEXsa, and CAUDLES-EF as 0.134±0.088, 0.074±0.092, and 0.043±0.097 mm, respectively. Our IMT was slightly underestimated with respect to the ground truth IMT, but showed a uniform behavior over the entire database. Regarding the Figure of Merit (FoM), CALEXia and CULEXsa showed the values of 84.7% and 91.5%, respectively, while our new approach, CAUDLES-EF, performed the best at 94.8%, showing a good improvement compared to previous methods.

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Section: Benchmarking Caudles-ef With Existing Automated Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CAUDLES-EF: Carotid Automated Ultrasound Double Line Extraction System Using Edge Flow

et al. 2011

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“…17 Readers are advised to see the references on CALEX details. 11,17 Molinari et al-Dual-Snake Formulation for Carotid Intima-Media Thickness The references in the second row are relative to previous publications in which the specific sets of images were used. Age values are mean ± SD (range).…”

Section: Performance Assessment and Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11,17 This algorithm, called completely automated layer extraction (CALEX), a class of AtheroEdge systems from Global Biomedical Technologies, Inc, adopted a combination of feature extraction and fitting for the automatic tracing of the AD F 11 and a fuzzy K-means classifier for the LI/MA tracing. 17 Readers are advised to see the references on CALEX details.…”

Section: Performance Assessment and Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fully Automated Dual-Snake Formulation for Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Measurement

Molinari

Meiburger

Saba

et al. 2012

Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine

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A New Approach he intima-media thickness (IMT) of the carotid arteries is a validated predictor of cardiovascular accidents 1 and is associated with several cardiovascular diseases. [2][3][4][5][6] In clinical practice, the sonographer usually manually measures the IMT value during the examination. 7 By means of the scanner calipers, the sonographer places two markers corresponding to the lumen-intima (LI) and media-adventitia (MA) interfaces. The distance between the markers is the estimation of the IMT. However, as Polak et al 8 recently showed, the inter-reader variability in IMT measurements could cause a substantial bias in the estimation of a patient 's Filippo Molinari, PhD, Kristen M. Meiburger, MSc, Luca Saba, MD, Guang Zeng, PhD, U. Rajendra Acharya, PhD, Mario Ledda, MD, Andrew Nicolaides, PhD, Jasjit S. Suri, PhD, MBA, FAIMBE Received August 30, 2011, from BioLab, Department TECHNICAL INNOVATIONAutomated computer-aided detection systems for measurement of the carotid intimamedia thickness (IMT) are becoming popular. These systems yield lumen-intima (LI) and media-adventitia (MA) borders. In this work, we developed and validated a novel and patented completely automated IMT measurement system called carotid measurement using dual snakes (CMUDS): a class of AtheroEdge system (Global Biomedical Technologies, Inc, Roseville, CA). CMUDS is modeled as a dual parametric system corresponding to LI and MA borders with initialization from the far adventitia layer. The novelty of CMUDS is the first-order absolute moment-based external energy, which provides stable deformation. The dual snakes evolve simultaneously and are forced to maintain a regularized distance to prevent collapsing or bleeding. Two independent readers manually traced the LI/MA boundaries of a multi-institutional, multiethnic, and multi-scanner database of 665 longitudinal images for performance evaluation. CMUDS was also benchmarked against a previously developed automated technique. CMUDS correctly processed 660 images (99.2% success). The differences between the CMUDS and two manual IMT measurements (mean ± SD) were 0.013 ± 0.216 and -0.021 ± 0.197 mm, respectively. The corresponding figures of merit for CMUDS compared to reader tracings were 98.4% and 97.5%. Compared to the previous technique (IMT differences, 0.022 ± 0.276 and -0.012 ± 0.266 mm), CMUDS improved accuracy (Wilcoxon P < 0.009) and variability (Fisher P < 10 -8 ). Among different resolution images from original equipment manufacturer ultrasound scanners, CMUDS performed best with high-resolution images corresponding to 0.0789 mm/pixel. Accuracy in IMT measurement with the proposed automated CMUDS technique makes this system adaptable to large multi-center studies, in which such an IMT measurement system would be very useful tool.

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Impact of T2 decay on carotid artery wall thickness measurements

Qiao

Steinman

Etesami

et al. 2012

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Purpose To investigate the impact of T2 relaxation of the carotid wall on measurements of its thickness. Materials and Methods The common carotid artery wall was imaged using a spin echo sequence acquired at four echo times (17 ms to 68 ms) in 65 participants as part of VALIDATE study. Images were acquired transverse to the artery 1.5 cm proximal to the flow divider. Mean wall thickness, mean wall signal intensity, lumen area, and outer wall area were measured for each echo. Contours were also traced on the image from the fourth echo and then propagated to the images from the preceding echoes. This was repeated using the image from the first echo. Mean wall signal intensity measurements at the four echo times were fit to a mono-exponential decay curve to derive the mean T2 relaxation time for each set of contours. Results Mean wall thickness decreased with increasing echo time, with an average thickness reduction of 8.6% between images acquired at the first and last echo times (TE) (0.93 mm at TE 17 ms versus 0.85 mm at TE 68 ms, P < 0.001). Average T2 relaxation time of the carotid wall decreased by 3% when the smaller contours from the last echo were used, which excluded the outer-most layer (54.3 ± 7.6 ms versus 52.7 ± 6.6 ms, P = 0.03). Conclusion Carotid wall thickness measurements decrease with echo time as expected by the fast T2 relaxation time of the outer-most layer, namely the adventitia. A short echo time is needed for thickness measurements to include adventitia, which plays an important role in plaque development.

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An Integrated Approach to Computer-Based Automated Tracing and Its Validation for 200 Common Carotid Arterial Wall Ultrasound Images

Cited by 88 publications

References 13 publications

CAUDLES-EF: Carotid Automated Ultrasound Double Line Extraction System Using Edge Flow

CAUDLES-EF: Carotid Automated Ultrasound Double Line Extraction System Using Edge Flow

Fully Automated Dual-Snake Formulation for Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Measurement

Impact of T2 decay on carotid artery wall thickness measurements

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