Assessment of arterial distension based on continuous wave Doppler ultrasound with an improved Hilbert-Huang processing.

A novel approach based on continuous wave (CW) Doppler ultrasound and the Hilbert-Huang transform with end-effect restraint by mirror extending is proposed to assess arterial distension. In the approach, bidirectional Doppler signals were first separated using the phasing-filter technique from the mixed quadrature Doppler signals, which were produced by bidirectional blood and vessel wall movements. Each separated unidirectional signal was decomposed into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using the empirical mode decomposition with end effect restraint by mirror extending algorithm, and then the relevant IMFs that contribute to the vessel wall components were identified. Finally, the displacement waveforms of the vessel wall were calculated by integrating its moving velocity waveforms, which were extracted from the bidirectional Hilbert spectrum estimated from the identified wall IMFs. This approach was applied to simulated and clinical Doppler signals from normal common carotid arteries (CCAs). In the simulation study, the estimated wall moving velocity and displacement waveforms were compared with the theoretical ones, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of the root-mean-square errors between the estimated and theoretical wall distension of the 30 realizations was 4.2 +/- 0.4 microm. In the clinical study, peak-to-peak distension was extracted in a subject and then averaged over 15 cardiac cycles, resulting in 603 +/- 22 microm. The mean and standard deviation of the CCA distension averaged over the experimental measurements of 12 healthy subjects gave the result of 620 +/- 154 microm. The clinical results were in agreement with those measured by using the multigate Doppler ultrasound and echo tracking systems. The results show that based on the CW Doppler ultrasound, the proposed approach is practical for extracting arterial wall peak-to-peak distension correctly and could be an alternative method for the vessel wall distension estimation.