This book fuses results of different imaging modalities to provide enhanced information about atherosclerotic plaque, improving the accuracy of the diagnosis. Covers new algorithms based on 3- and 4-D Ultrasound, and progress in plaque image fusion analysis.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the world, resulting mostly from the sudden ruptures of atherosclerosis carotid plaques. Understanding why and how plaque develops and ruptures requires a multi-disciplinary approach such as radiology, biomedical engineering, medical physics, software engineering, hardware engineering, pathological and histological imaging. Multi-Modality Atherosclerosis Imaging, Diagnosis and Treatment presents a new dimension of understanding Atherosclerosis in 2D and 3D. This book presents work on plaque stress analysis in order to provide a general framework of computational modeling with atherosclerosis plaques. New algorithms based on 3D and 4D Ultrasound are presented to assess the atherosclerotic disease as well as very recent advances in plaque multimodality image fusion analysis.

The goal of Multi-Modality Atherosclerosis Imaging, Diagnosis and Treatment is to fuse information obtained from different 3D medical image modalities, such as 3D US, CT and MRI, providing the medical doctor with some sort of augmented reality information about the atherosclerotic plaque in order to improve the accuracy of the diagnosis. Analysis of the plaque dynamics along the cardiac cycle is also a valuable indicator for plaque instability assessment and therefore for risk stratification. 4D Ultrasound, a sequence of 3D reconstructions of the region of interest along the time, can be used for this dynamic analysis. Multimodality Image Fusion is a very appealing approach because it puts together the best characteristics of each modality, such as, the high temporal resolution of US and the high spatial resolutions of MRI and CT.

1. Histology and Pathology of 3D Atherosclerosis

                Mastaka Nakano, Elena R. Ladich, and Renu Virmani

2. Clinical MRA of the Carotid Arteries

                Michele Anzidei, Beatrice Cavallo Marincola, Fabrizio Boni, and Carlo Catalano

3. Quantitative MR Imaging of the Carotids

                Tobias Saam

4. Contrast Agents in Carotid Angiography with Magnetic Resonance     

                Michele Anzidei, Chiara Zini, and Vincenzo Noce

5. Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Analysis in the Assessment of Cardiac Diseases

                Erica Maffei, Giancarlo Messalli, Cesare Mantini, Teresa Arcadi, Chiara Martini, Massimo Imbriaco, and Filippo Cademartiri

6. Atherosclerosis Plaque Stress Analysis: A Review

                Hao Gao and Quan Long

7. Carotid Plaque Stress Analysis: Issues on Patient Specific Modelling

                Hao Gao and Quan Long

8. Noninvasive Targeting of Vulnerable Carotid Plaques for Therapeutic Interventions

                Rikin A. Trivedi

9. Clinical CT Imaging of Carotid Arteries               

                Chandra dev Sahu and Max Wintermark

10. Quantitative CT Imaging of Carotid Arteries

                M.J. van Gils, K. Hameeteman, M. van Straten, W.J. Niessen, and A. van der Lugt

11. Quantitative Computed Tomography Analysis in the Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease

                Erica Maffei, Giancarlo Messalli, Cesare Mantini, Teresa Arcadi, Chiara Martini, Massimo Imbriaco, and Filippo Cademartiri

12. A Gamma Mixture Model for IVUS Imaging

                G. Vegas Sánchez-Ferrero, M. Martín Fernández, and J. Miguel Sanches

13. Ultrasound Profile of Carotid Plague. A New Approach Towards Stroke Prediction

                José Seabra, Luís Mendes Pedro, J. Fernandes e Fernandes, and J. Miguel Sanches

14. Ultrasonographic Quantification of Carotid Stenosis: A Reappraisal Using a New Gold Standard

                Luís Mendes Pedro, Ruy Fernandes e Fernandes, Luís M. Silvestre, and J. Fernandes e Fernandes

15. Histologic and Biochemical Composition of Carotid Plaque and Its Impact on Ultrasonographic Appearance

                Isabel Gonçalves

16. Automated Carotid IMT Measurement and Its Validation in Low Contrast Ultrasound Database of 885 Patient Indian Population Epidemiological Study: Results of AtheroEdgeTM Software

                Filippo Molinari, Kristen M. Meiburger, Guang Zeng, Luca Saba, U. Rajendra Acharya, Luca Famiglietti, Niki Georgiou, Andrew Nicolaides, Raja Sriswan Mamidi, Hannah Kuper, and Jasjit S. Suri

17. Carotid Artery Recognition System (CARS): A Comparison of Three Automated Paradigms for Ultrasound Images

                Filippo Molinari, Kristen Mariko Meiburger, Guang Zeng, U. Rajendra Acharya, William Liboni, Andrew Nicolaides, and Jasjit S. Suri

18. Atherosclerotic Carotid Plaque Segmentation in Ultrasound Imaging of the Carotid Artery

                Christos P. Loizou and Marios Pantzaris

19. Relationship Between Plaque Echogenicity and Atherosclerosis Biomarkers

                John D. Kakisis, Efthimios Avgerinos, Nikolaos Kadoglou, George Sfyroeras, Konstantinos Moulakakis, and Christos D. Liapis

20. Hypothesis Validation of Far Wall Brightness in Carotid Artery Ultrasound for Feature-Based IMT Measurement Using a Combination of Level Set Segmentation & Registration

                Filippo Molinari, Ganapathy Krishnamurthy, U. Rajendra Acharya, S. Vinitha Sree, Guang Zeng, Luca Saba, Andrew Nicolaides, and Jasjit S. Suri

21. Segmentation of Carotid Ultrasound Images

                Rui Rocha, Jorge Silva, and Aurélio Campilho

22. Imaging Occlusive Atherosclerosis

                J. Fernandes e Fernandes, L. Mendes Pedro, R. Fernandes e Fernandes, and L. Silvestre

23. Imaging of Aortic Aneurysms: What Do We Need to Know and Which Techniques Should Be Chosen?

                Nuno V. Dias and Timothy Resch

24. Molecular Imaging of Inflammation and Intraplaque Veovascularization

                Gerrit L. ten Kate, Sitjn C.H. van den Oord, Eric J.G. Sijbrands, Antonius F.W. van der Steen, and Arend F.L. Schinkel

25. Carotid Angioplasty and Stenting

                Sebastián Baldi, Luis García Nielsen, Tobias Zander, Rafael Feldman, and Manuel Maynar

26. New Approaches for Plaque Component Analysis in Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) Images

                Arash Taki, Alireza Roodaki, Sara Avansari, Ali Bigdelou, Amin Katouzian, and Nassir Navab

27. Visualization of Atherosclerotic Coronary Plaque by Using Optical Coherence Tomography

                Takashi Kubo and Takashi Akasaka

28. Image Fusion Technology

                Gerd Brunner, Eric Y. Yang, Joel D. Morrisett, Zsolt Garami, and Vijay Nambi

29. Generalized Symptomatic vs. Asymptomatic Plaque Characterization and Classification in Carotid Ultrasound Images

                U. Rajendra Acharya, Oliver Faust, S. Vinitha Sree, Filippo Molinari, Luca Saba, Andrew Nicolaides, and Jasjit S. Suri