Why the study?
Asynchronous carotid plaque movement on B-mode ultrasound is linked to higher stroke risk, but had not been quantitatively estimated.
Does B-mode ultrasound analysis of plaque motion synchronisation accurately classify features of carotid plaque vulnerability in patients with carotid atheromatous plaques?
Does B-mode ultrasound analysis of plaque motion synchronisation accurately classify features of carotid plaque vulnerability in patients with carotid atheromatous plaques?
Quantitative estimation of asynchronous carotid plaque motion using B-mode ultrasound provides high diagnostic accuracy for identifying vulnerable plaque characteristics.
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Quantitative carotid plaque asynchrony analysis may flag vulnerability; extends prior reports but leaves open need for prospective outcome validation.
Asynchronous movement of the carotid atheromatous plaque from B-mode ultrasound has been previously reported, and associated with higher risk of stroke, but not quantitatively estimated. Based on the hypothesis that asynchronous plaque motion is associated with vulnerable plaque, in this study, synchronisation patterns of different tissue areas were estimated using cross-correlations of displacement waveforms. In 135 plaques (77 subjects), plaque radial deformation was synchronised by approximately 50% with the arterial diameter, and the mean phase shift was 0.4 s. Within the plaque, the mean phase shifts between the displacements of the top and bottom surfaces were 0.2 s and 0.3 s, in the radial and longitudinal directions, respectively, and the synchronisation about 80% in both directions. Classification of phase-shift-based features using Random Forests yielded Area-Under-the-Curve scores of 0.81, 0.79, 0.89 and 0.90 for echogenicity, symptomaticity, stenosis degree and plaque risk, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that echolucent, high-stenosis and high-risk plaques exhibited higher phase shifts between the radial displacements of their top and bottom surfaces. These findings are useful in the study of plaque kinematics.
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Golemati et al. (2020) studied this question.
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