Fig. 3.

The Star-Kalman filter used to segment the carotid artery from the ultrasound images through the entire compression sequence. Versus applied external load, as expected, the artery is increasingly compressed (as noted by the reduction in minor axis) as external load is applied. The artery minor axis oscillates in size due to internal pulsing blood pressure. The size of the artery vs external applied load at peak size (systolic - top images of artery) and at valley size (diastolic - bottom images of artery) are used to look-up the stored results of the output of a finite element model and output systolic pressure and diastolic pressure.