Highlights – Workshop on Clinical Apps and Techniques of Atherosclerotic Plaque Image Analysis

On the 16th of May 2024, multiple distinguished carotid atherosclerosis Experts (clinicians, carotid disease experts, researchers, engineers, computer scientists) came together, on site and online; for the purposes of the hybrid Workshop on Clinical Applications & Techniques of Atherosclerotic Plaque Image Analysis, co-organized by the AtheroRisk Project team (ehealthlab@CUT) and the Cyprus Atherosclerotic Society, to present the AtheroRisk Project outcomes.

That was a rare and wonderful opportunity for all the participants to acquire distilled knowledge concerning the carotid disease, and the currently advised diagnosis pathways, by Professors A. Nicolaides (Prof. of Vascular Surgery at the Imperial College School of Medicine and Consultant Vascular Surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital from 1983–2000 and Honorary Prof. of Surgery at St George’s University of London/University of Nicosia Medical School, Nicosia, Cyprus) and Stavros Kakkos (MD, MSc, PhD, RVT and Prof. and Chairman at the Department of Vascular Surgery at the University of Patras Medical School, Patras, Greece; connected Online) who sparkled everyone’s interest, starting with two inspiring and detailed talks, explaining what we expect to see, when analyzing carotid ultrasound images and videos, in asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals. All previous research and findings pertaining to the preprocessing/standardization and analysis of ultrasound images, conducted by our collaborators and us, in the past, was showcased.

In a talk that followed, Georgia Liapi described the research features developed through the AtheroRisk Project  and what the future end-users should expect to find in the AtheroRisk Software. Among them, is the analysis of carotid ultrasound videos to detect the different cardiac cycle phases, and the automatic segmentation of the carotid plaques in ultrasound videos, followed by motion analysis of the plaques, to identify areas in high risk of stroke.

Then, Michalis Gemenaris, gave us a complete tour inside the AtheroRisk Software, taking us step-by-step to all image and video analysis modules included in the 1st Version of the Software.

Dr. Kyriacos Constantinou and Dr. Nicoletta Prentza, our collaborators from the CYENS (Cyprus Center of Excellence), presented their central findings pertaining to the extraction and analysis of AM-FM image features for stroke risk assessment in carotid ultrasound images, and Gorgia’s based Argumentation Rules, specifically extracted to categorize carotid atherosclerosis image features for stroke risk stratification.

Interesting questions were raised by the participants, which were addressed by Prof. A. Nicolaides.

Below, we provide a photo gallery, from different talks and moments, during the event.