resents a new dimension of understanding Atherosclerosis in 2D and 3D
Presents work on plaque stress analysis in order to provide a general framework of computational modeling with Atherosclerosis plaques
Focuses on patient specific material property characterization by using in-vivo MRI data
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. Sur