Motion compensation method using dynamic programming for quantification of neovascularization in carotid atherosclerotic plaques with contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)

Intraplaque neovascularization (IPN) has been linked with progressive atherosclerotic disease and plaque instability in several studies. Quantification of IPN may allow early detection of vulnerable plaques. A dedicated motion compensation method with normalized-cross-correlation (NCC) block matching combined with multidimensional (2D+time) dynamic programming (MDP) was developed for quantification of IPN in small plaques (<30% diameter stenosis). The method was compared to NCC block matching without MDP (forward tracking (FT)) and showed to improve motion tracking. Side-by-side CEUS and B-mode ultrasound images of carotid arteries were acquired by a Philips iU22 system with a L9-3 linear array probe. The motion pattern for the plaque region was obtained from the Bmode images with MDP. MDP results were evaluated in-vitro by a phantom and in-vivo by comparing to manual tracking of three experts for multibeat-image-sequences (MIS) of 11 plaques. In the in-vivo images, the absolute error was 72±55μm (mean±SD) for X (longitudinal) and 34±23μm for Y (radial). The method's success rate was visually assessed on 67 MIS. The tracking was considered failed if it deviated >2 pixels (~200μm) from true motion in any frame. Tracking was scored as fully successful in 63 MIS (94%) for MDP vs. 52(78%) for FT. The range of displacement over these 63 was 1045±471μm (X) and 395±216μm (Y). The tracking sporadically failed in 4 MIS (6%) due to poor image quality, jugular vein proximity and out-of-plane motion. Motion compensation showed improved lumen-plaque contrast separation. In conclusion, the proposed method is sufficiently accurate and successful for in vivo application.