Researcher: Xinyue Huang
Central venous pressure (CVP) is a critical clinical parameter for assessing hemodynamic stability. The gold standard catheter-based measurement method is invasive and poses associated risks. As an alternative, CVP can be estimated via pressure in the internal jugular vein (IJV), which connects directly to the right atrium. Previously, ultrasound (US)-based methods have been developed to noninvasively assess venous pressure by compressing tissue with a transducer and measuring surface pressure with external sensors as the vein collapses. However, these methods are often semi-quantitative due to tissue heterogeneity.
We propose an approach that combines US-guided strain and shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) to noninvasively and quantitatively estimate CVP. Specifically, a transducer is used to apply surface deformation to gradually compress the neck tissue, collapsing the underlying IJV while simultaneously acquiring B-mode and SWEI data. The strain and Young’s modulus of the overlying sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) are estimated. CVP is calculated under two assumptions: (1) axial stress in the SCM can be computed from Young’s modulus and axial strain maps; and (2) at the point of IJV collapse, the axial stress in the adjacent SCM equals the CVP.