2016 Volume 2016 Pages 67-73
The number of arteriosclerotic patients has been increasing on account of Japanese Westernization. A diagnostic method using echocardiography is a simple and easy method to diagnose arteriosclerosis. The method measures the intima-media thickness (IMT), which is the thickness of the carotid artery wall. Accordingly, the method employs this thickness as a diagnostic index. When using this method, however, it is difficult to detect arteriosclerosis in its early stages when the artery wall has not yet thickened. Therefore, we propose a method that can be used even in these early stages by employing echocardiogram brightness as a diagnostic index. Because the artery wall hardens in arteriosclerosis progression, the echo brightness shows a large numerical value. In addition, in the possible case of an artery wall exploding, the echo brightness shows a small value because the vascular wall is soft. Nevertheless, we do not know the number of classes in advance. Thus, we must automatically change the number of classes for each image that is obtained.
