Problem Statement

Traditionally, most studies concerning the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis have focused on analyzing the lesions themselves or other factors inside of the blood vessel. However, researchers have been unsuccessful in determining the root cause of the disease with this approach. As a result, a greater emphasis has been placed on analyzing the tissues surrounding these lesions outside of the blood vessel as they may lead to new insight on the pathophysiology of the disease. Most of this analysis utilizes CT imaging. However, analyzing these tissues directly using CT images and current image processing tools is time consuming and extremely difficult.