Patent US 6,132,373

An apparatus for measuring an intima-media thickness of a blood vessel is disclosed. The apparatus includes: an ultrasound device for outputting digital image data representing an image of the blood vessel produced by scanning the blood vessel with an ultrasound; and a data analyzing device for receiving the output digital image data and calculating the intima-media thickness of the blood vessel according to the received digital image data. The digital image data includes a plurality of luminance values each corresponding to respective one of a plurality of pixels of the image. The data analyzing device includes: a setting device for setting a base position between a center of the blood vessel and a position in a vicinity of an inner intima wall of the blood vessel on the image, on the basis of a moving average of the luminance values; and a calculation device for detecting a maximum value and a minimum value from among the luminance values respectively corresponding to a predetermined number of the pixels arranged from the base position toward a position of an outer adventitial wall on the image, and calculating the intima-media thickness on the basis of the maximum value and the minimum value.