Resources / Publications

Scientific Publication Citing Dragonfly

Association between non-invasive vascular elastography and body mass index in children

Ramy El Jalbout (1)
Papyrus : Institutional RepositoryOctober 2017

---

Keywords

Non-invasive vascular elastography, Intima-media thickness, Body mass index, Ultrasound, Children

---

Abstract

Knowing that cardiovascular disease risk factors are present in asymptomatic children, this study explores the association between non-invasive vascular elastography (NIVE) as a subclinical marker of atherosclerosis and obesity in children. In the absence of a gold standard, we also compare B-mode and Radiofrequency (RF) based ultrasound measurements of intima-media thickness (IMT) in children with normal and increased body mass index (BMI). This is a prospective study between 2005 and 2011. NIVE parameters and IMT of the common carotid artery were compared between 60 children with normal BMI and 60 children with increased BMI enrolled in the QUebec Adipose and Lifestyle Investigation in Youth cohort (QUALITY)… Significant IMT measurement variation is observed between the three techniques. However, children with increased BMI tend to have higher IMT values regardless of the technique. Both subclinical markers can be used for optimal stratification of children with cardiovascular disease risk factors. The same technique should be used throughout.

---

How Our Software Was Used

The segmentation of the vessel wall and NIVE analysis were performed for the entire cine-loop acquisition using Object Research Systems' software. A region of interest comprising the IMT and the adventitia was identified and manually segmented on the first frame of the cine-loop acquisition to initiate the automated segmentation that was propagated to subsequent frames. The segmentation process was based on the analysis of a mixture of Nakagami probability distributions defining image speckle. The LSME algorithm was then applied to generate elastography parameters of the segmented vessel.

---

Author Affiliation

(1) Departement de sciences biomedicales, Faculte de medecine, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec.

---

Return to Publications list.