Joseph Jayaraj, Ten Dam Anne Maria
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2017 Jul;2017:1380-1384. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2017.8037090.
ARTSENS® (ARTerial Stiffness Evaluation for Non-invasive Screening) is a technology for image-free evaluation of carotid artery stiffness with intelligent real time ultrasound signal processing algorithms for arterial wall identification and tracking. However, the influence of the ultrasound probe orientation on the clarity of the artery wall echoes makes measurement a challenge for inexperienced operators. We present an orientation navigation system (ONS), which performs real time tracking of the probe orientation and gives feedback to the user to help take faster readings with more ease for novice ARTSENS® operators. An controlled usability study on seven operators demonstrated that the ONS could reduce the average measurement time in ARTSENS® by nearly 50%. The usability of the system was rated positive with a score of 75.4/100 and a grading of 8.3/10 by the operators. The ONS system makes ARTSENS® easier to operate thus enables it to be used for quick and reliable measurements in vascular screening scenarios.
ARTSENS®（用于无创筛查的动脉僵硬度评估）是一种通过智能实时超声信号处理算法进行颈动脉僵硬度无图像评估的技术，该算法用于动脉壁识别和跟踪。然而，超声探头方向对动脉壁回声清晰度的影响给经验不足的操作人员带来了测量挑战。我们提出了一种方向导航系统（ONS），它能实时跟踪探头方向，并向用户提供反馈，以帮助新手ARTSENS®操作人员更轻松、更快地进行读数。对七名操作人员进行的一项可用性对照研究表明，ONS可将ARTSENS®中的平均测量时间缩短近50%。操作人员对该系统的可用性给予了积极评价，评分为75.4/100，分级为8.3/10。ONS系统使ARTSENS®更易于操作，从而能够在血管筛查场景中进行快速可靠的测量。
