title: A new method for the in vivo identification of mechanical properties in arteries from cine MRI images: theoretical framework and validation.
abstract: Quantifying the stiffness properties of soft tissues is essential for the diagnosis of many cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. In these pathologies it is widely agreed that the arterial wall stiffness is an indicator of vulnerability. The present paper focuses on the carotid artery and proposes a new inversion methodology for deriving the stiffness properties of the wall from cine-MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) data. We address this problem by setting-up a cost function defined as the distance between the modeled pixel signals and the measured ones. Minimizing this cost function yields the unknown stiffness properties of both the arterial wall and the surrounding tissues. The sensitivity of the identified properties to various sources of uncertainty is studied. Validation of the method is performed on a rubber phantom. The elastic modulus identified using the developed methodology lies within a mean error of 9.6%. It is then applied to two young healthy subjects as a proof of practical feasibility, with identified values of 625 kPa and 587 kPa for one of the carotid of each subject.
authors.affiliation: CIS-EMSE, CNRS UMR 5146, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines, F-42023 Saint-Etienne, France.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Franquet
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Avril
authors.forename: Rodolphe
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Le Riche
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Badel
authors.forename: Fabien C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Zhi Yong
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boissier
authors.forename: Jean Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Favre
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000502:physiology; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D059289:Vascular Stiffness / Q000502:physiology*