title: Characterization of vascular strain during in-vitro angioplasty with high-resolution ultrasound speckle tracking.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ultrasound elasticity imaging provides biomechanical and elastic properties of vascular tissue, with the potential to distinguish between tissue motion and tissue strain. To validate the ability of ultrasound elasticity imaging to predict structurally defined physical changes in tissue, strain measurement patterns during angioplasty in four bovine carotid artery pathology samples were compared to the measured physical characteristics of the tissue specimens.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using computational image-processing techniques, the circumferences of each bovine artery specimen were obtained from ultrasound and pathologic data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ultrasound-strain-based and pathology-based arterial circumference measurements were correlated with an R2 value of 0.94 (p = 0.03). The experimental elasticity imaging results confirmed the onset of deformation of an angioplasty procedure by indicating a consistent inflection point where vessel fibers were fully unfolded and vessel wall strain initiated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results validate the ability of ultrasound elasticity imaging to measure localized mechanical changes in vascular tissue.
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors: Prashant
authors: P
authors: Patel
authors: Rohan
authors: R
authors: Biswas
authors: Daewoo
authors: D
authors: Park
authors: Thomas J
authors: TJ
authors: Cichonski
authors: Michael S
authors: MS
authors: Richards
authors: Jonathan M
authors: JM
authors: Rubin
authors: Sem
authors: S
authors: Phan
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Hamilton
authors: William F
authors: WF
authors: Weitzel
mesh_terms: D017130:Angioplasty / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D002417:Cattle; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014463:Ultrasonography