Analysis of Doppler blood flow velocity in carotid arteries for the detection of atherosclerotic plaques
Keywords
Statistics
Author(s):
Buratti, Pamela
Title:
Analysis of Doppler blood flow velocity in carotid arteries for the detection of atherosclerotic plaques
Date:
Tuesday 4th October 2011
Advisor:
Secchi, P.
Advisor II:
Azzimonti, L.
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Abstract:
In this thesis, a technique for nearly automated detection of Doppler flow
velocity profile is developed. From this, it is possible to estimate the period
of the velocity waveform throughout an innovative iterative method, based
on Fourier smoothing and non linear least squares. The estimate of the period enables the reconstruction of a function representing the velocity of the red blood cells, along the common carotid artery and at different distances from the bifurcation. Considering these functional data, it is possible to reduce the dimension of the problem performing a functional
principal component analysis. The aim is that of exploring the blood flow
along the common carotid artery, before the plaque is reached, and searching for features of the curve that indicate the presence of the plaque downstream through a linear discriminant analysis. This permits to compare the blood velocity field in healthy people with the blood flow of stenotic patients, who will undergo TEA surgery.