Tesi di LAUREA SPECIALISTICA Titolo Analysis of Doppler blood flow velocity in carotid arteries for the detection of atherosclerotic plaques Data 2011-10-04 Autore/i Buratti, Pamela Relatore Secchi, P. Relatore Azzimonti, L. Full text non disponibile Abstract In this thesis, a technique for nearly automated detection of Doppler flow velocity profile is developed. From this, it is possible to estimate the period of the velocity waveform throughout an innovative iterative method, based on Fourier smoothing and non linear least squares. The estimate of the period enables the reconstruction of a function representing the velocity of the red blood cells, along the common carotid artery and at different distances from the bifurcation. Considering these functional data, it is possible to reduce the dimension of the problem performing a functional principal component analysis. The aim is that of exploring the blood flow along the common carotid artery, before the plaque is reached, and searching for features of the curve that indicate the presence of the plaque downstream through a linear discriminant analysis. This permits to compare the blood velocity field in healthy people with the blood flow of stenotic patients, who will undergo TEA surgery.