Biomedical subjects

F Andreuccetti

Publications and source records attributed to F Andreuccetti.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

A simplified approach for real-time detection of arterial wall velocity and distension.

Arterial stiffness is known to increase with age and with many vascular diseases, but its noninvasive assessment in patients still represents a difficult task. The measurement of diameter change during the cardiac cycle (distension) has been proposed as a means to estimate arterial compliance and stiffness. Therefore, we have developed a simple PC-based device and algorithm for noninvasive quantification of vessel wall motion and diameter change in humans. This goal is achieved in real-time by processing the base-band signals from a commercial ultrasound Doppler system. Real-time operation is of crucial importance, because it allows a rapid achievement of optimal measurement conditions. The system was evaluated in a laboratory using a string phantom and was tested on the carotid arteries of 10 volunteers. Wall velocities from 0.05 to 600 mm/s and displacements lower than 2 microns were detected with phantoms. The measured carotid diameter change in the volunteers ranged from 7.5 to 11.8% (mean = 9.8%) and agrees closely with values reported in the literature. The difference between values taken one hour apart ranged from 0.2 to 0.5%. We conclude that the new system provides rapid, accurate, and repeatable measurements of vessel distension in humans.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Ultrafast three-dimensional ultrasound: application to carotid artery imaging.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Three-dimensional (3-D) vascular ultrasound can be expected to improve qualitative evaluation of vessel pathology and to provide quantitative data on vascular morphology and function. The objective of this study was to develop an ultrafast 3-D vascular system and to validate its performance for quantitation of atherosclerosis and assessment of regional arterial distensibility. METHODS: The quantitative analysis of focal atherosclerotic lesions was validated in vitro on 27 phantoms of fibroadipous plaques of known volume (range, 100 to 600 mm3). In vivo reproducibility of plaque volume measurement was tested in 33 patients who had a total of 47 predominantly fibroadipous carotid plaques. Distensibility assessment was validated indirectly through the evaluation of age-related changes in distensibility of common carotid artery in healthy and hypertensive subjects (25 men in each group). RESULTS: The volume of plaque phantoms measured from the 3-D data set showed a very close correlation with the true volume (r=0.99; y=0.96x+12.38; P<0.01), with the mean difference between the 2 measurements being -3.12+/-15.1 mm3. High reproducibility was found for measurement of carotid plaque volume in vivo: the mean difference between measurements from 2 observers for the same data set was 0.60+/-11.2 mm3. Indexes of arterial distensibility decreased with age in healthy population, whereas this relationship was lost in hypertensive subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrafast 3-D ultrasound imaging of carotid artery demonstrates good accuracy and reproducibility for atherosclerotic plaque volume measurements. The system also allows the study of age-related degenerative vascular changes.

Aged↗

PubMed1996

Nearly real-time visualization of arbitrary two-dimensional sections from three-dimensional acquisition.

This work presents a system for the reconstruction of cross-sections with arbitrary orientations derived from three-dimensional (3D) echographic scanners. The interest for this powerful diagnostic tool has prompted us to develop a low-cost processing board that inserts easily into a stand-alone echograph. The proposed system is able to reconstruct high-resolution cross-sections at one frame per second with a time lag of about 60 s due the 3D acquisition process. The board, based on three pipelined DSP devices, has been designed to process volumetric data collected with a commercial echograph by means a rotating probe synchronized with the ECG signal. The resolution of the reconstruction algorithm implemented on the processing unit has been evaluated both with synthetic 3D data and with experimental data from a phantom.

Animals↗