Measurement system of flow mediated dilation (FMD) of brachial artery for evaluation of arterial endothelium function

摘要

Measuring of arterial endothelium function is one of the methods for measurement of arteriosclerosis. In this method, we measure the increase in brachial arteries' diameter after flow-mediated vasodilator response. It is required for a medical doctor to handle ultrasound transducer to obtain appropriate ultrasound images for measuring diameter of the arteries. Consequently, to get good images is very time consuming and its reproducibility of measurement still remains low. In this research, to improve reproducibility and efficiency of measurement, we developed the automatic measurement system utilizing robot arm controlled based on obtained ultrasound image and automated measurement of the arterial diameters.