title: Noninvasive simultaneous assessment of wall shear rate and wall distension in carotid arteries.
abstract: A novel technique has been developed for the noninvasive real-time simultaneous assessment of both blood velocity profile and wall displacements in human arteries. The novel technique is based on the use of two ultrasound beams, one set at optimal angle for wall motion measurements and the other for blood velocity profile measurements. The technique was implemented on a linear array probe divided into two subapertures. A modified commercial ultrasound machine and a custom PC board based on a high-speed digital signal processor was used to process the quadrature demodulated echo signals and display results in realtime. Flow phantom experiments demonstrated the validity of the technique, providing wall shear rate (WSR) estimates within 10% of the theoretical values. The system was also tested in the common carotid arteries of 16 healthy volunteers (age 30 to 53 y). Results of simultaneous diameter distension and WSR measurements were in agreement with published data.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy. piero.tortoli@unifi.it
authors.forename: Piero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tortoli
authors.forename: Tiziano
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morganti
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bambi
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palombo
authors.forename: Kumar V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Ramnarine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D001809:Blood Viscosity / Q000502:physiology; D017536:Carotid Artery, Common / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D004548:Elasticity; D018056:Hemorheology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D033081:Shear Strength; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014159:Transducers; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D014655:Vascular Resistance / Q000502:physiology