A method for localized computation of Pulse Wave Velocity in carotid structure

Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) promises to be a useful clinical marker for noninvasive diagnosis of atherosclerosis. This work demonstrates the ability to perform localized carotid PWV measurements from the distention waveform derived from the Radio Frequency (RF) ultrasound signal using a carotid phantom setup. The proposed system consists of low cost custom-built ultrasound probe and algorithms for envelope detection, arterial wall identification, echo tracking, distension waveform computation and PWV estimation. The method is proposed on a phantom data acquired using custom-built prototype non-imaging probe. The proposed approach is non-image based and can be seamlessly integrated into existing clinical ultrasound scanners.