B-mode Ultrasonography

B-Mode Ultrasound

B-mode ultrasonography is non-invasive, and the equipment needed is portable and widely available. An ultrasound probe produces 2-3 cycle pulses of approximately 10 MHz. Images re captured and analyzed with semiautomated methods which define the boundaries between the lumen and intima, and between intima and adventitia (Intimal-medial thickness, IMT). Wall thickness can be measured at several sites and the mean of the maximum thickness of all sites is taken as an indicator for the disease¹¹⁹.

The Food and Drug Administration have accepted change in IMT measured by B mode ultrasound as an indicator of disease progression or regression, and it has been employed in numerous clinical trails. It has been used to demonstrate that arterial wall thickening with concurrent external diameter enlargement indicates higher atherosclerotic risk than either event in isolation¹²⁰.