Characterization of Carotid Plaque in Three-Dimensional Ultrasound by Registration with Multicontrast MRI

Bernard Chiu¹, Vijay Shamdasani², Robert Entrekin², Chun Yuan¹, William S. Kerwin¹

Due to the cost effectiveness of US, it is beneficial to establish a screening strategy in which US is used to identify subjects suspicious of having vulnerable plaques, who are then further studied using MRI. To evaluate the viability of such screening strategy, it is crucial to establish to what extent US can predict subsequent MRI findings. To make this assessment possible, we developed a MR-US registration technique that establishes the spatial correspondence of different plaque components. Our registration method has an average error below 1mm. Also, we found a good correspondence between hyperechoic structures and calcifications in US images.