Carotid artery segmentation in ultrasound images and measurement of intima-media thickness

Abstract

Background. The segmentation of the common carotid artery (CCA) wall is imperative for the determination of the intima-media thickness (IMT) on B-mode ultrasound (US) images. The IMT is considered an important indicator in the evaluation of the risk for the development of atherosclerosis. In this paper, authors have discussed the relevance of measurements in clinical practices and the challenges that one has to face while approaching the segmentation of carotid artery on ultrasound images. The paper presents an overall review of commonly used methods for the CCA segmentation and IMT measurement along with the different performance metrics that have been proposed and used for performance validation. Summary and future directions are given in the conclusion. © 2013 Vaishali Naik et al.