Two approaches to motion analysis of the ultrasound image sequence of carotid atheromatous plaque.

It has been observed, with a sequence of ultrasonic images, that a significant number of carotid atheromatous plaques moved under the influence of cardiovascular forces. The aim of this project was to analyse the movement of the heterogeneous and homogeneous plaques using both the discrete approach and the continuous approach. In order to verify that the movement of plaque is not due to the movement of the transducer or the respiration of the patient, global movement estimation was also carried out. Experimentation on an artificial image sequence showed that both approaches can track the target accurately. These approaches were then applied on clinical image sequences and the results showed that carotid plaque was locally moved as a result of the momentum transfer rather than the global movement of the surrounding normal tissue.