Motion Artifact Reduction in Ultrasound Based Thermal Strain Imaging of Atherosclerotic Plaques Using Time Series Analysis.

Large lipid pools in vulnerable plaques, in principle, can be detected using US based thermal strain imaging (US-TSI). One practical challenge for cardiovascular application of US-TSI is that the thermal strain is masked by the mechanical strain caused by cardiac pulsation. ECG gating is a widely adopted method for cardiac motion compensation, but it is often susceptible to electrical and physiological noise. In this paper, we present an alternative time series analysis approach to separate thermal strain from the mechanical strain without using ECG. The performance and feasibility of the time-series analysis technique was tested numerical simulation as well as water tank experiments using a vessel mimicking phantom and an excised human atherosclerotic artery where the cardiac pulsation is simulated by a pulsatile pump.