OBJECTIVE We aimed to develop a novel ultrasound system and examine its feasibility for noninvasively detecting thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) in clinical settings. METHODS We developed a novel ultrasound system consisting of a modified console and data analysis algorithm. The exploratory study included 100 patients hospitalized for elective cardiovascular surgery. After admission, the arterial pulse waveform at the left carotid artery was acquired using the novel system. Based on these data, we inferred the presence of TAA based on arterial viscoelasticity and instability, which are reflected into the time-averaged trajectory of deformation of the blood vessel wall caused by disturbance of blood flow. Meanwhile, all patients underwent computed tomography as preoperative screening to confirm the presence of TAA. The sensitivity and specificity of TAA detection using the novel ultrasound system were calculated. RESULTS The datasets from 37 patients were not suitable for analysis and were thus discarded. Based on computed tomography findings, 40 patients were categorized into the aneurysm group while 23 were judged not to have and aortic aneurysm. On the other hand, 44 patients were diagnosed as having TAA based on ultrasound findings obtained using the novel system. The overall sensitivity and specificity of the ultrasound system were 0.83 and 0.52, respectively. CONCLUSION We successfully developed a novel system for noninvasive, ultrasound-based evaluation of the left carotid artery to detect TAA. Although improvements to the probe and diagnostic algorithm are warranted, this device has potential utility for mass screening to detect asymptomatic TAA as part of community-level healthcare programs.

中文翻译：

---

一种新型的外周动脉多普勒超声诊断系统，可检测胸主动脉瘤的存在。

目的我们旨在开发一种新型超声系统，并检查其在临床环境中无创检测胸主动脉瘤（TAA）的可行性。方法我们开发了一种新颖的超声系统，该超声系统由改进的控制台和数据分析算法组成。这项探索性研究包括100例因择期心血管外科手术住院的患者。入院后，使用新型系统采集左颈动脉的动脉脉搏波形。基于这些数据，我们基于动脉粘弹性和不稳定性推断出TAA的存在，这反映在由血流干扰引起的血管壁变形的时间平均轨迹上。同时，所有患者均接受计算机断层扫描作为术前筛查，以确认是否存在TAA。计算了使用新型超声系统进行TAA检测的灵敏度和特异性。结果37例患者的数据集不适合分析，因此被丢弃。根据计算机体层摄影术的发现，将40例患者分为动脉瘤组，而23例被判断为无动脉瘤和主动脉瘤。另一方面，根据使用该新型系统获得的超声检查结果，诊断出有44名患者患有TAA。超声系统的总体灵敏度和特异性分别为0.83和0.52。结论我们成功地开发了一种新的系统，用于基于超声的左颈动脉无创评估，以检测TAA。尽管有必要对探针和诊断算法进行改进，