title: Statistical modeling of atherosclerotic plaque in carotid B mode images--a feasibility study.
abstract: A feasibility study undertaken to model atherosclerotic plaque in carotid B-mode images is presented. The study is based on 33 regions-of-interest collected from arterial images obtained from four patients. A bimodal gamma distribution with five parameters is proposed to model the statistics of the pixels in the gray-level images. The parameters of the distribution are evaluated for regions containing plaque using curve-fitting techniques. This bimodal distribution appears to be a reasonable fit to the statistics of the pixels. This statistical model may aid in the objective classification of arterial plaque through the use of its parameters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. pshankar@coe.drexel.edu
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Shankar
authors.forename: Flemming
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Forsberg
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lown
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017536:Carotid Artery, Common / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D014463:Ultrasonography