Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2013 Oct;39(10):1875-86. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2013.03.019. Epub 2013 Jul 30.
To improve diagnosis and understanding of the risk of rupture of atherosclerotic plaque, new strategies to realistically determine mechanical properties of atherosclerotic plaque need to be developed. In this study, an in vitro experimental method is proposed for accurate 3-D assessment of (diseased) vessel geometry using ultrasound. The method was applied to a vascular phantom, a healthy porcine carotid artery and human carotid endarterectomy specimens (n = 6). Vessel segments were pressure fixed and rotated in 10 ° steps. Longitudinal cross sections were imaged over 360 °. Findings were validated using micro-computed tomography (μCT). Results show good agreement between ultrasound and μCT-based geometries of the different segment types (ISI phantom = 0.94, ISI healthy = 0.79, ISI diseased = 0.75-0.80). The method does not suffer from acoustic shadowing effects present when imaging stenotic segments and allows future dynamic measurements to determine mechanical properties of atherosclerotic plaque in an in vitro setting.
为了改善对动脉粥样硬化斑块破裂风险的诊断和认识，需要开发新的策略来真实地确定动脉粥样硬化斑块的机械性能。在这项研究中，提出了一种使用超声对（患病）血管几何形状进行准确三维评估的体外实验方法。该方法应用于血管模型、健康猪颈动脉和人颈动脉内膜切除术标本（n = 6）。血管段被压力固定并以 10°的步长旋转。纵向横截面在 360°范围内成像。使用微计算机断层扫描（μCT）验证了结果。结果表明，不同节段类型的超声和 μCT 基几何形状之间具有良好的一致性（ISI 模型 = 0.94，ISI 健康 = 0.79，ISI 患病 = 0.75-0.80）。该方法不受成像狭窄段时存在的声影效应的影响，并允许未来的动态测量来确定体外环境中动脉粥样硬化斑块的机械性能。
