Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of many cardiovascular diseases. Early diagnosis and drug treatment of atherosclerosis is a major task of modern medicine and biomedical research. The goal of this review was to consider the modern approaches to ultrasound evaluation of the structural and functional features of the vascular wall based on the analysis of the radio-frequency signal. A technique for measuring the parameters of local arterial stiffness is described in detail. The main advantage of this technique is that it combines the high quality of the B-mode imaging with the automated detection of the state of the arterial walls based on the radio-frequency analysis. Both the limitations and the advantages of the suggested technique are discussed.