2021 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 81-90
Purpose: Ultrasonography-derived carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) has been established as an early atherosclerotic imaging biomarker. The IMT reference value of a healthy person is approximately 0.1×(every 10 years of age) + 0.2 (mm); accordingly, it requires an accuracy of at least 0.1 mm. However, one concern of IMT measurement is the intervendor variability. In this study, we aimed to verify the intervendor variability by IMT phantom. Methods: IMT phantom was developed by improvement, and it was possible to analyze the IMT by software on all vendors. Results: In the vendor-specific software, the maximum difference between the devices was 0.08 mm, and the difference in quartile range was 0.06 mm. On the other hand, in the vendor-independent offline software, the maximum difference between the devices was 0.16 mm, and the quartile range of variation was 0.06 mm. Conclusion: The intervendor variability assessed by the IMT phantom was less than 0.10 mm, and the on-board vendor-specific software was shown to reduce the difference between the devices significantly compared with the vendor-independent off-line software. To further improve the vender difference, adjustment by vendor-specific software based on the standardized IMT phantom is warranted.
