Keywords:
Musculoskeletal system, Radiographers, Ultrasound, Experimental, Computer Applications-Detection, diagnosis, Tissue characterisation
Authors:
P. Conde1, A. Silva1, M. Santos2, A. Silva1; 1Aveiro/PT, 2 Aveiro/PT
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2018/C-2061
Conclusion
This work proposes a strategy to characterize and quantify peripheral nerve movement in different anatomical planes.
The histogram descriptor enables compact assessment of principal motion properties.
It is clear that both the axial plane and longitudinal plane may be mapped to rather different motion histogram signatures.
However,
some limitations must be considered,
such as the speckle pattern,
which is an intensity pattern produced by the interference of random aggregates of tiny echogenic structures.
This phenomenon can create interference between the points being tracked because of the accumulated noise between frames and the small contrast signal associated with regions with similar acoustic impedance.
All these factors impair the accuracy of measures.
Yet the results of this study indicate that estimating the median nerve movement during wrist motion can provide information about its mobility and deformability,
which might prove useful in the assessment of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).
This study also takes advantage of the very nature of ultrasound imaging and is able to quantify movement on a real-time basis.
The median nerve was only studied in a normal patient without CTS.
As for the methods,
ROI Tracking seemed more reliable for movement quantification on the longitudinal plane.
Point-wise Tracking seemed reliable for both planes.
Contour Tracking seemed more indicated for the axial plane quantification.
Further testing of the proposed methods is required.