title: Nakagami-m Parametric Imaging for Atherosclerotic Plaque Characterization Using the Coarse-to-Fine Method.
abstract: The Nakagami model was used to analyze the statistical differences in ultrasound backscattered signals between different plaque types. To improve image resolution, Nakagami-m parametric imaging using the coarse-to-fine method based on the maximum likelihood estimation (CTF-BOW) was proposed for atherosclerotic plaque characterization. Simulation results confirmed that the CTF-BOW method significantly outperforms the sliding window method in precision, smoothness and resolution. Preliminary in vivo results (n = 45) indicated that the ranges of the m parameters for calcified, mixed and echolucent plaques are, respectively, 0.2852-0.5225, 0.6532-0.8784 and 0.8908-1.4011, with no overlap. Results revealed that the CTF-BOW method significantly improves image resolution without sacrificing accuracy and can distinguish between calcified, mixed and echolucent plaques. Moreover, it was found that the parameter m is related to the composition of the plaque, indicating that Nakagami-m parametric imaging has the potential to characterize plaques.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Science and Technology on Electro-optical Control Laboratory, Luoyang, China.
authors.forename: Jinjin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasound, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Yongfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasound, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. Electronic address: mxwan@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Mingxi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / 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
keywords: Atherosclerotic plaque; Backscattered statistics; Coarse-to-fine method; Nakagami-m parametric imaging; Ultrasound