A system to diagnose atherosclerosis via wavelet transforms, principal component analysis and artificial neural networks

In this study, Doppler ultrasound signals were acquired from carotid arteries of 82 patients with atherosclerosis and 95 healthy volunteers. We have employed discrete wave transform (DWT) of Doppler signals and power spectral density graphics of these decomposed signals using Welch method. After that, we have performed Principal component analysis (PCA) for data reduction and ANN in order to distinguish between atherosclerosis and healthy subjects. After the training phase, testing of the artificial neural network (ANN) was established. The overall results show that 97.9% correct classification was achieved, whereas two false classifications have been observed for the test group of 97 people. In conclusion we are proposing a complimentary expert system that can be coupled to software of the ultrasonic Doppler devices. The diagnosis performances of this study show the advantages of this system: it is rapid, easy to operate, noninvasive, inexpensive and making a decision without hesitation. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.