Improvement of an intravascular ultrasound elasticity modulus imaging approach for detecting vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques

Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is the major cause of acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, and stroke in the western world. Stress concentration is recognized to be a good indicator of vulnerable plaques (VP). The Lagrangian speckle model estimator (LSME) for vascular ultrasound elastography, developed by our group, provides the strain field within the plaque. However, evaluation of the stress field relies on a precise identification …