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Innovative method to estimate arterial stiffness: a vascular ultrasound study
keywords ULTRASOUND
Reference persons LUCA MESIN
Research Groups Mathematical Biology and Physiology
Description Arterial stiffness is one of the most powerful prognostic factor in patients without previous cardiovascular events. Multidistrict pulse wave velocity (PWV) assessment is considered the current gold standard to assess arterial stiffness with acceptable degree of accuracy and reliability. However this method is time consuming and few vascular laboratories use it systematically. Recently a semi-automated edge-to-edge tracking technique has been proposed to process ultrasound scans of vessels to valuate their pulsatility, which is related to their stiffness.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and the correlation between PWV and the semi-automated edge-to-edge tracking technique to estimate arterial stiffness using indexes provided by different vascular districts.
The study is in collaborazione with San Giovanni Bosco Hospital, in Turin. 10 patients without previous relevant medical history will be prospectively enrolled. Each patient will undergo a complete vascular and echocardiographic scan. In particular for each patient the following data will be recorded: PWV assessed as recommended by guidelines and a vascular scan of at least 10 seconds will be performed at the level of ascending aorta, common carotid artery and common femoral artery. The thesis requires the processing of ultrasound data, the extraction of stiffness indices and the comparison with the standard method based on PWV.
Required skills Matlab programming. Biomedical images.
Deadline 24/04/2021
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