Shear-wave sonoelastographic assessment of cervix in pregnancy.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in shear-wave sonoelastography (SWS) scores between the different parts of cervix, explore the association between the cervical SWS scores with cervical length and evaluate repeatability of the measurement of cervical SWS scores.

Material And Methods: This was a prospective study performed in women with singleton pregnancy at 11-13 (n = 676), 16-20 (n = 364), 21-24 (n = 338) and 28-32 weeks (n = 304). The SWS scores were obtained at the inner, middle and external parts of the cervix, using a transvaginal ultrasound approach.

The predictive value of cervical shear wave elastography in the outcome of labor induction.

Introduction: Bishop score, the traditional method to assess cervical condition, is not a promising predictive tool of the outcome of labor induction. As an objective assessment tool, many cervical ultrasound measurements have been proposed to represent the individual components of the Bishop score, but none of them can measure the cervical stiffness. Cervical shear wave elastography is a novel tool to assess the cervical stiffness quantitatively.

Ultrasound IMT measurement on a multi-ethnic and multi-institutional database: our review and experience using four fully automated and one semi-automated methods.

Automated and high performance carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) measurement is gaining increasing importance in clinical practice to assess the cardiovascular risk of patients. In this paper, we compare four fully automated IMT measurement techniques (CALEX, CAMES, CARES and CAUDLES) and one semi-automated technique (FOAM). We present our experience using these algorithms, whose lumen-intima and media-adventitia border estimation use different methods that can be: (a) edge-based; (b) training-based; (c) feature-based; or (d) directional Edge-Flow based.

Atherosclerotic risk stratification strategy for carotid arteries using texture-based features.

Plaques in the carotid artery result in stenosis, which is one of the main causes for stroke. Patients have to be carefully selected for stenosis treatments as they carry some risk. Since patients with symptomatic plaques have greater risk for strokes, an objective classification technique that classifies the plaques into symptomatic and asymptomatic classes is needed.