title: Advances in the development of an imaging device for plaque measurement in the area of the carotid artery.
abstract: This paper describes the advances in the development and subsequent testing of an imaging device for three-dimensional ultrasound measurement of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid artery. The embolization from the atherosclerotic carotid plaque is one of the most common causes of ischemic stroke and, therefore, we consider the measurement of the plaque as extremely important. The paper describes the proposed hardware for enhancing the standard ultrasonic probe to provide a possibility of accurate probe positioning and synchronization with the cardiac activity, allowing the precise plaque measurements that were impossible with the standard equipment. The synchronization signal is derived from the output signal of the patient monitor (electrocardiogram (ECG)), processed by a microcontroller-based system, generating the control commands for the linear motion moving the probe. The controlling algorithm synchronizes the movement with the ECG waveform to obtain clear images not disturbed by the heart activity.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava , Ostrava-Poruba , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lačezar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ličev
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava , Ostrava-Poruba , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krumnikl
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava , Ostrava-Poruba , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jaromír
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Škuta
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava , Ostrava-Poruba , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Babiuch
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava , Ostrava-Poruba , Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Radim
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Farana
keywords: ECG synchronization; linear movement; plaque measurement; ultrasound probe