In this chapter, we will present the most widely used computer techniques for the carotid IMT segmentation from cardiovascular ultrasound images. We will focus on ultrasound image and carotid artery characteristics, and the difference between semiautomatic and completely automatic segmentation methods, also presenting numerous used and established techniques.

Chapter Contents:

• 19.1 Introduction
• 19.2 Ultrasound and carotid artery characteristics
• 19.2.1 Properties of ultrasound images
• 19.2.2 Carotid artery structure and appearance in ultrasound images
• 19.3 Carotid artery recognition
• 19.3.1 Techniques for automatic carotid artery localization
• 19.3.1.1 Shape priors
• 19.3.1.2 Texture and classification
• 19.3.1.3 Pixel intensity and/or local statistics
• 19.4 Carotid wall and final IMT segmentation
• 19.4.1 Edge-tracking and gradient-based techniques
• 19.4.2 Dynamic programming techniques
• 19.4.3 Active contours (snakes)
• 19.4.4 Transform-based and modeling approaches
• 19.4.5 Data mining techniques
• 19.5 Performance measurement and comparison
• 19.6 Discussion and final remarks
• References

Inspec keywords: medical image processing; cardiovascular system; blood vessels; image segmentation; biomedical ultrasonics

Other keywords: carotid artery characteristics; cardiovascular ultrasound images; carotid artery IMT segmentation; semiautomatic segmentation methods; intima-media thickness; computer techniques

Subjects: Sonic and ultrasonic radiation (biomedical imaging/measurement); Sonic and ultrasonic applications; Optical, image and video signal processing; Sonic and ultrasonic radiation (medical uses); Computer vision and image processing techniques; Biology and medical computing; Patient diagnostic methods and instrumentation