Abstract：
Non-invasive ultrasound (US) imaging enables the assessment of the properties of superficial blood vessels. Various modes can be used for vascular characteristics analysis, ranging from radiofrequency (RF) data, Doppler- and standard B/M-mode imaging, to more recent ultra-high frequency and ultrafast techniques. The aim of the present work was to provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art non-invasive US technologies and corresponding vascular ageing characteristics from a technological perspective. Following an introduction about the basic concepts of the US technique, the characteristics considered in this review are clustered into: 1) vessel wall structure; 2) dynamic elastic properties, and 3) reactive vessel properties. The overview shows that ultrasound is a versatile, non-invasive, and safe imaging technique that can be adopted for obtaining information about function, structure, and reactivity in superficial arteries. The most suitable setting for a specific application must be selected according to spatial and temporal resolution requirements. The usefulness of standardization in the validation process and performance metric adoption emerges. Computer-based techniques should always be preferred to manual measures, as long as the algorithms and learning procedures are transparent and well described, and the performance leads to better results. Identification of a minimal clinically important difference is a crucial point for drawing conclusions regarding robustness of the techniques and for the translation into practice of any biomarker.
摘要：
非侵入性超声(US)成像能够评估浅表血管的性质。各种模式可用于血管特征分析，从射频(RF)数据，多普勒和标准B/M模式成像，到最近的超高频和超快技术。本工作的目的是从技术角度概述当前最先进的非侵入性美国技术和相应的血管老化特征。在介绍了美国技术的基本概念之后，本文考虑的特征分为：1)血管壁结构；2)动态弹性特性，和3)反应性容器特性。概述表明，超声波是一种多功能，非侵入性，以及可用于获取功能信息的安全成像技术，结构,浅动脉的反应性.必须根据空间和时间分辨率要求为特定应用选择最合适的设置。标准化在验证过程和性能度量采用中的有用性出现了。基于计算机的技术应始终优先于手动措施，只要算法和学习程序是透明的和良好的描述，和性能导致更好的结果。识别最小的临床重要差异是得出关于技术的鲁棒性的结论以及将任何生物标志物转化为实践的关键点。
