An insight into elasticity analysis of common carotid artery using ultrasonography

Elastance is a distinguished marker in diagnosing various arterial diseases as studies have reported carotid artery-related diseases linked with stiffness index (β) values greater than 5. This study was to estimate elasticity of common carotid artery by measuring the diameter during systolic and diastolic phases using pixel tracing of successive frames and blood pressure. The B-mode ultrasonography video containing arterial wall motion was captured and fragmented into image frames. Each pixel on the greyscale image was converted into RGB intensity values. The diameter of the artery as well as the thickness of the wall was measured by tracing the pixel displacements from successive frames during arterial pulsation. The study was conducted on 19 subjects aged 25-40 years. The systolic and diastolic carotid artery lumen diameters and carotid intima-media thickness were calculated as 7.1 ± 0.7, 6.3 ± 0.6 and 0.5 ± 0.05 mm (mean ± standard deviation), respectively. The mean stiffness index (β), Peterson's modulus and Young's modulus of elasticity were 5.2 ± 1.1, 69 ± 15 kPa and 453 ± 99 kPa, respectively. The pixel displacements in tunica intima, tunica media and tunica adventitia were not homogeneous, due to varied macro-constituents such as endothelial tissues, smooth muscle cells, elastin lamina, fibrous tissue and micro-constituents such as collagen, fibroblast and elastin. We found that women have smaller arteries, and the stiffness increased during the systolic phase.