New technique for 3D artery modelling by noninvasive ultrasound

The approach aims to improve visualisation of the artery under consideration for later use in monitoring disease within it. The technique is based on analysing a series of transverse noninvasive ultrasound scans. Noninvasive transverse scanning allows a circle to be used as an appropriate model to determine the arterial wall data in each slice. This circle is extracted from the edge magnitude information provided by a version of the Canny edge-detection operator and is then located using an implementation of the Hough transform tailored to determine the contour which best fits the arterial data. The deviation from the circle provides the arterial wall template except where data is absent when the approximation itself is used. By extracting the template from successive ultrasound images in in vivo studies 3D pictures of vessels, initially of the carotid artery and the bifurcation, have been developed. The model´s accuracy has been validated by a test object study.<>