A wearable carotid ultrasound assembly for early detection of cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular disease is currently responsible for a major portion of all global deaths. Fortunately, early detection of its symptoms can greatly contribute to effective prevention. Hence, clinicians recommend routine cardiovascular check-ups. Even though various methods for cardiac diagnosis exist, most of them are clinic-based, and therefore time-consuming and costly. Therefore, it is not always possible for patients to go through these procedures on a regular basis. In this paper, we propose a novel wearable ultrasonic imaging assembly for routine, easy-to-use, and economical monitoring of the carotid arteries. The device monitors intima-media thickness (IMT), which is a proven clinically useful marker for diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and prediction of imminent cardiovascular events. It uses standard B-mode ultrasound, which is suitable for implementation within area- and power-constrained wearable form factors. We present design parameters and power requirements for all the essential hardware components of the proposed wearable imaging system. We also present an efficient algorithm for predicting IMT anomalies from ultrasound images.