Stenoses Characterization with Ultrasound

Abstract

The detection and evaluation of stenoses are important public health issues. After a morphologic detection of the stenosis is performed through ultrasound or angiography, the physicians must decide whether a surgical intervention or a recanalization is needed. The latter is used only if the stenosis reduces the arterial lumen by 70 % or less, and the first solution is decided when the vessel is nearly occluded. Today, the medical diagnoses are performed according to criteria, such as percentage of reduction of the lumen area or “pressure gradient”, the latter being estimated from the Doppler blood velocity measurement inside the stenosis. Although these approaches are clinically validated, we think that they are only makeshifts, mainly because of the subjectivity introduced in the criteria interpretation. Indeed, these criteria rely on the modelization of the blood pressure gradient across the stenosis.