Automatic measurement of lumen diameter of carotid artery in A-Mode ultrasound

Accurate measurement of lumen diameter is essential for correct estimation of arterial compliance. We have been developing a new non-invasive arterial compliance measurement tool using a single element ultrasound transceiver. In this paper we propose a new method for measurement of lumen diameter from single line of Radio-Frequency Signal (RF) obtained from the common carotid artery (CCA). The method is free from fixed thresholds and uses shape fitting to get objective measurement. The accuracy of the algorithm was found to be better than 5 % for software simulated and phantom arteries and better than 10 % in case of data obtained from CCA of human volunteers.