Improvement in Accuracy of Ultrasonic Measurement of Transient Change in Viscoelasticity of Radial Arterial Wall Due to Flow-Mediated Dilation by Adaptive Low-Pass Filtering

Abstract

In our previous study, the stress–strain relationship of the radial arterial wall was measured and the viscoelasticity of the intima–media region was estimated from the stress–strain relationship. Furthermore, the transient change in viscoelasticity due to flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was estimated by the automated detection of wall boundaries. In the present study, the strain rate was adaptively filtered to improve the accuracy of viscoelasticity estimation by decreasing the high-frequency noise. Additionally, in a basic experiment, this method was validated using a silicone tube (simulating artery). In the basic experiment, the elasticity was estimated with a mean error of 1.2%. The elasticity measured at each beam position was highly reproducible among measurements, whereas there was a slight variation in measured elasticity among beams. Consequently, in in vivo measurements, the normalized mean square error (MSE) was clearly decreased. Additionally, the stress–strain relationship of the radial arterial wall was obtained and the viscoelasticity was estimated accurately. The inner small loop, which corresponds to the negative pressure wave caused by the closure of the aortic valve, can be observed using the adaptive low-pass filtering (LPF). Moreover, the transient changes in these parameters were similar to those in the previous study. These results show the potential of the proposed method for the thorough analysis of the transient change in viscoelasticity due to FMD.