Effect of Harmonic and Compound Imaging on Estimates of Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness

Author： Alessi-Chinetti Jean Tran Hong Harrington Anita Wanke Christine Polak Joseph F.

Publisher： Society for Vascular Ultrasound

ISSN： 1544-3175

Source： Journal for Vascular Ultrasound, Vol.34, Iss.4, 2010-12, pp. : 185-188

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Abstract

Background.—Carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) is a marker of atherosclerosis linked to cardiovascular outcomes. These outcome studies were made before advanced imaging techniques such as harmonic imaging (HI) and compound (CrossBeam) were available. We study the effects of these new imaging approaches on estimates of carotid artery IMT.Materials and Methods.—A total of 26 subjects (44 common carotid arteries) with an average age of 49.3 years were imaged with fundamental imaging (FI) presets, HI, and compound imaging (CrossBeam; XB). Images were the evaluated with a commercially available edge detector. Comparisons of group means were made with analysis of variance and the Tukey-Kramer test. Associations with age were studied with linear regression analysis.Results.—Mean values of carotid artery IMT of the common carotid far wall were different (p < 0.04) between groups (FI: 0.63 ± 0.09 mm; HI: 0.66 ± 0.16 mm; crossbeam imaging: 0.59 ± 0.13 mm). XB gave significantly lower IMT values than HI. XB IMT was not significantly associated with age whereas FI and HI IMT were.Conclusion.—We conclude that advanced imaging approaches need to be evaluated against traditional imaging approaches to insure concordance with published IMT values. Failure to do so may result in significant differences with published normative IMT values.