Stroke Risk Assessment Using Atheroma Plaque Surface Features Evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to obtain a fully automatic procedure for atheroma plaques surface characterization in order to prevent stroke. Stroke risk probability can be estimated by comparing many factors such as blood pressure, blood cholesterol, smoking, overweight, sedentary life, stress and heredity, but all these are only increasing probabilities. This article proposes a new method for classifying patients in three risk categories based on the evaluation of features extracted from the ultrasound images of atheroma plaque surface. The advantage of this method is a more precise estimation of the risk based on the current status of the patient. Moreover, this noninvasive technique has a great advantage over other methods that require biopsy.