Digital processing of ultrasound images on dilated blood vessels from diabetic patients.

Introduction Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a fairly common degenerative vascular condition in diabetic patients that leads to inadequate blood flow (BF), this disease is mainly due to atherosclerosis that causes chronic narrowing of arteries, which can precipitate acute thrombotic events. In patients with diabetes, atherosclerosis is the main reason for reducing life expectancy, as long as diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy are the largest contributors to end-stage renal disease and blindness, respectively. Objective This was an assessment of dilatation of the blood vessels on diabetic patients vs. healthy volunteers by using digital processing of imaging's. Materials and Methods The study subject was ultrasound imaging processing of blood vessels dilation on low extremities of diabetic patients, the results were compared with ultrasound images of healthy subjects. Results The digital images processing suggests that there is a significant difference among images experimental of the diabetic group and healthy volunteers' images, the control group. Discussion The digital imaging processing performed in the Matlab platform is an adequate procedure for blood vessels dilation analysis of the ultrasound images taken from the lower extremities in diabetic patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]