title: A new approach for improving coronary plaque component analysis based on intravascular ultrasound images.
abstract: Virtual histology intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS) is a clinically available technique for atherosclerosis plaque characterization. It, however, suffers from a poor longitudinal resolution due to electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated acquisition. This article presents an effective algorithm for IVUS image-based histology to overcome this limitation. After plaque area extraction within an input IVUS image, a textural analysis procedure consisting of feature extraction and classification steps is proposed. The pixels of the extracted plaque area excluding the shadow region were classified into one of the three plaque components of fibro-fatty (FF), calcification (CA) or necrotic core (NC) tissues. The average classification accuracy for pixel and region based validations is 75% and 87% respectively. Sensitivities (specificities) were 79% (85%) for CA, 81% (90%) for FF and 52% (82%) for NC. The kappa (kappa) = 0.61 and p value = 0.02 indicate good agreement of the proposed method with VH images. Finally, the enhancement in the longitudinal resolution was evaluated by reconstructing the IVUS images between the two sequential IVUS-VH images.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Aided Medical Procedures (CAMP), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany. taki@cs.tum.edu
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taki
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hetterich
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roodaki
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Setarehdan
authors.forename: Gozde
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Unal
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rieber
authors.forename: Nassir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Navab
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: König
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000379:methods*