Tabel Ghasan M, Hepel Jaroslaw, Whittaker Peter, Palal Betsy, Chandraratna P Anthony
Division of Internal Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2005 Aug;31(8):1013-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2005.02.008.
Atherosclerotic plaques in ultrasound (US) images may have bright areas suggestive of fibrous plaque and hypoechoic areas that are often interpreted as fatty plaque. The current study was designed to test the hypothesis that fibrous tissue in atherosclerotic plaques will be hyperechoic or hypoechoic, depending on collagen fiber morphology. Twelve segments of aortic arch containing atherosclerotic plaques obtained from cadavers were imaged with an 8-MHz US transducer, then sectioned, stained with picrosirius red and examined with polarized light microscopy. There were 12 bright areas that contained predominantly thick collagen fibers. Two areas were anechoic, with predominantly thin collagen fibers. There were 11 hypoechoic areas; six of these contained thin fibers and five contained no collagen on polarized light microscopy, suggesting fat or thrombus. We conclude that fibrous aortic plaques consisting of predominantly thin fibers appear hypoechoic or anechoic on US images and, therefore, may be indistinguishable from fatty plaques.
超声（US）图像中的动脉粥样硬化斑块可能有提示纤维斑块的明亮区域以及常被解释为脂肪斑块的低回声区域。当前研究旨在验证这一假设：动脉粥样硬化斑块中的纤维组织会根据胶原纤维形态表现为高回声或低回声。使用8兆赫超声换能器对从尸体获取的12段含动脉粥样硬化斑块的主动脉弓进行成像，然后切片，用苦味酸天狼星红染色并通过偏振光显微镜检查。有12个明亮区域，主要包含粗大的胶原纤维。两个区域无回声，主要包含细小的胶原纤维。有11个低回声区域；其中6个包含细纤维，5个在偏振光显微镜下未发现胶原，提示为脂肪或血栓。我们得出结论，主要由细纤维组成的纤维性主动脉斑块在超声图像上表现为低回声或无回声，因此可能与脂肪斑块无法区分。
