Spectral tissue strain: a new technique for imaging tissue strain using intravascular ultrasound

Spectral tissue strain (STS) is a new technique for measuring and imaging tissue strain from a set of images using intravascular ultrasound. The technique is based on the Fourier scaling property and uses the chirp z-transform (CZT) to estimate strain within the vessel walls. Some preliminary results, both in vitro and in vivo, are described. A novel display technique has also been developed for encoding radial strain and displaying the resulting colour map as an overlay on the original image.