Semiautomated Software to Improve Stability and Reduce Operator-Induced Variation in Vascular Ultrasound Speckle Tracking.

Objectives: Ultrasound is useful in predicting arteriovenous fistula (AVF) maturation, which is essential for hemodialysis in end-stage renal disease patients. We developed ultrasound software that measures circumferential vessel wall strain (distensibility) using conventional ultrasound Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data. We evaluated user-induced variability in measurement of arterial wall distensibility and upon finding considerable variation we developed and tested 2 methods for semiautomated measurement.

Development of open-source software for free-hand 3D vascular ultrasound: Dialysis fistula application.

Background: The arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the preferred vascular access for End Stage Renal Disease, having superior patency and lower infection risks than prosthetic graft and catheter access. When AVF dysfunction or delayed maturation does occur, the gold standard for diagnosis is the fistula angiogram (a.k.

Angioplasty Induced Changes in Dialysis Vascular Access Compliance.

Dialysis vascular access remains vitally important to maintain life and functional capacity with end stage renal disease. Angioplasty is an integral part of maintaining dialysis access function and patency. To understand the effect of angioplasty balloon dilation on vascular wall mechanics, we conducted a clinical study to evaluate the elastic modulus of the anastomosis in five subjects with anastomosis stenoses, before and after six angioplasty procedures, using B-mode ultrasound DICOM data.

Ultrasound Measurement of Vascular Distensibility Based on Edge Detection and Speckle Tracking Using Ultrasound DICOM Data.

This study presents an edge detection and speckle tracking (EDST) based algorithm to calculate distensibility as percentage of change of vessel diameter during cardiac cycles. Canny edge detector, Vandermonde matrix representation, Kanade Lucas Tomasi algorithm with pyramidal segmentation, and penalized least squares technique identifies the vessel lumen edge, track the vessel diameter, detrend the signal and find peaks and valleys when the vessel is fully distended or contracted. An upper extremity artery from 10 patients underwent an ultrasound examination as part of preoperative evaluation before arteriovenous fistula surgery.

Detecting High-Resolution Intramural Vascular Wall Strain Signals Using DICOM Data.

Maintaining dialysis vascular access is a source of considerable morbidity in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). High-resolution radiofrequency (RF) ultrasound vascular strain imaging has been applied experimentally in the vascular access setting to assist in diagnosis and management. Unfortunately, high-resolution RF data are not routinely accessible to clinicians.

Sono-angiography for dialysis vascular access based on the freehand 2D ultrasound scanning.

Introduction: Dialysis vascular access, preferably an autogenous arteriovenous fistula, remains an end stage renal disease (ESRD) patient's lifeline providing a means of connecting the patient to the dialysis machine. Once an access is created, the current gold standard of care for maintenance of vascular access is angiography and angioplasty to treat stenosis. While point of care 2D ultrasound has been used to detect access problems, we sought to reproduce angiographic results comparable to the gold standard angiogram (fistulogram) using ultrasound data acquired from a conventional 2D ultrasound scanner.

Ultrasound speckle tracking to detect vascular distensibility changes from angioplasty and branch ligation in a radio-cephalic fistula: Use of novel open source software.

We used novel open source software, based on an ultrasound speckle tracking algorithm, to examine the distensibility of the vessel wall of the inflow artery, anastomosis, and outflow vein before and after two procedures. An 83-year-old white man with a poorly maturing radio-cephalic fistula received an angioplasty at the anastomosis followed by branch ligation 28 days later. Duplex Doppler measurements corroborated the blood flow related changes anticipated from the interventions.