ULTRASONIC METHOD FOR RELATIVE CHANGES OF INTIMA-MEDIA THICKNESS MEASUREMENTS IN COMMON CAROTID ARTERY

This paper presents results of examinations of the intima-media thickness (IMT) in human common carotid arteries. Ultrasonic examinations were carried out on healthy volunteers with the use of the apparatus Vascular Echo Doppler (VED), designed in IFTR-PAS to measure the elasticity of arteries. Application of the PDA-14 PC-card (Signatec) allowed for the acquisition of ultrasonic RF signal from the output of the apparatus VED and for further analysis of dynamic changes of the IMT during a heart cycle. Changing of the IMT in time as a difference between the instantaneous position of the two tracking slopes of RF echoes was obtained. For this purpose the zero-crossing method, for tracking phase changes of two characteristic rising slopes of the RF ultrasonic echo, was used