ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an intriguing biomedical research project where MATLAB has been invaluable for its implementation-both in its initial phase, when developing the algorithms and the graphical user interface and when research groups started to use the methods. Measurement of the diameter change is now an established tool in cardiovascular research forming the basis for estimation of arterial wall stiffness, an important factor for the performance of the heart. When this condition is fulfilled, we have found 2D block matching to be useful to track the arterial wall movement both in axial and lateral directions in the ultrasound cineloop. To provide visual feedback during the arterial wall movement estimation, we prefer to use Lagrangian motion description instead of the more commonly used Eulerian motion description. It is a general method that can be used for any 2D motion estimation purpose.
